A Heart of Dust and Gold
by SilverPedals1402
Summary: [AU] She's the new girl in school and he's the trouble maker. It was an unspoken rule that the two weren't supposed to get along. Except, fate has other plans and the two end up becoming closer than ever. But he's willing to fight fate and anything else to keep his secret from getting out.
1. The New Girl and Him

**Happy belated New Year! I hope everyone's had a good start to a new year. I know I don't really have room for a new story, but I needed something new and this idea has been bugging me for the past month. Hopefully it's a good one that you guys will enjoy! :) It's a little, maybe a lot, different than my other stories. But I decided to give it my best shot! I don't know about the title...but hopefully it'll make sense later on. **

**And please excuse any major grammar/spelling mistake. I'm using my laptop, which sadly doesn't have a writing program with a spell check. But I tried my best on my own.**

**Disclaimer: IMAA belongs to its rightful owners. Not me. :( **

"Class, I'd like you all to meet your new classmate," the teacher announced happily, gesturing towards a teenage girl with bright red hair and brown eyes as she walked into the classroom, "Would you like to introduce yourself?"

The redheaded teen felt the excitement bubble up in her chest as she rocked on her heels nervously. "My name is Patricia Potts, but I'd like it if you all called me Pepper. That would be really nice! I'm really excited to be here!"

She earned a few laughs from the students, but she told herself to ignore them. It's what she's always done in her last school. The teacher scolded the class before turning politely to the new student. "Pepper, nice to meet you, you can take a seat right over there," the teacher pointed a perfectly polished nail towards a table in the back row, "right next to Tony."

As she walked, students were snickering and giggling, looking back to the boy who Pepper figured must be Tony. She bit her lip nervously as she felt heat rise in her cheeks as she realized how attractive Tony was. She couldn't tell what it was about him, but he definitely wasn't bad looking. He had messy, ebony hair with electric blue eyes that seemed to shock her when they made eye contact. She quickly looked down to avoid his gaze, still feeling his eyes on her as she took her seat next to him. Trying to ignore that he was still looking, she organized her spot as she pleased.

The teacher cleared her throat, to gain the attention of class. "Alright, it's time to focus back on the lesson, so I'd appriciate your attention."

* * *

><p>A few hours had passed on her first day at the new school of Tomorrow Acadamy. A few hours in and she only knew one student's name. Tony. She was yet to figure out what his last name was, but she wasn't too concerned about that. She heard a few in the hallways, like Abby, Jack, James, and she wasn't sure if happy was supposed to be a name or someone just saying that they were happy. But none of them stuck out like Tony did.<p>

Technically, there was a few reasons for why this particular student stuck out to her. To start, he hardly took his eyes off of her that first hour, when she sat next to him. It was a very awkward and nervous first hour of her first day at the new school. He sure knew how to welcome a new student. Then he also stuck out, because in her second hour, which she happened to share with him, he got sent to the office for back talking and disrespecting the teacher. Apparently that was a common occurance. And according to this one girl that actually talked to her that wasn't a teacher, that that wasn't the worst of Tony. It disappointed Pepper to find out that he was that kind of student. Which, brought up the last reason she was pretty sure why he stuck out so much to her. She somehow managed to get herself attracted to him on sight, and now she couldn't stop thinking about him. Especially his blue eyes, and how hypnotic they were when she gazed into them even for a second.

Suddenly, she was shoulder to shoulder with someone. Her head snapped up to face whoever it was that was now invading her personal space. She was quite sure that she had found a spot away from the crowd. She had figured out throughout the day that it was okay to go and eat lunch up on the roof, so that's what she had done. And if she heard correctly, they all said that nobody really went up there.

So she was a little shocked to find that her new blue-eyed obsession, Tony, sitting with his shoulder and leg pressed up against her side. She added to her list that he had no care for personal space of others. She was making a mental list of all the pros and cons of Tony, and so far, the only pro she has about him is his looks. This was a habit of hers. Making lists of pros and cons of people she meets.

"Decided you wanted to eat on the roof?" Tony asked of her, reaching out to steal the apple from her lunch.

"Hey!" she protested, snatching out to retrieve her apple back.

He held the apple out of her reach with ease. "No, no! You're the one who decided you wanted to eat up on the roof."

"So what?" Pepper questioned. "It's not like I'm hurting anybody up here. Now, give me my apple back!"

"How about," Tony began. "no."

"Why not!"

"Haven't you heard that nobody comes up here?" Tony spoke, rolling her apple in his hands thoughtfully as if it held the answer to his question. "Did you ever wonder why they say that?"

The tone of his voice made Pepper hesitate to answer. He sounded so playful before, even if it was the annoying kind of playful, but now he sounded kind of menacing and dark. "No, I hadn't really thought about it."

"Well," Tony sighed as he pushed himself off the ledge they had been sitting on and took a bite out of her apple, much to Pepper's dismay. "Nobody comes up here for lunch because this is where I eat my lunch."

"What? You can't share the roof?" Pepper asked, raising an eyebrow. "Is it not big enough for you?"

"No, it's plenty big," Tony agreed, "I don't exactly mind sharing. After all, I didn't kick you out, did I?"

Pepper shook her head. "No, but then why doesn't anybody else eat up here?"

"Beats me," Tony shrugged, taking another bite from her apple. "But it's been like this for a long time, so I've learned to like it this way."

His response made her think of how the students at her previous school treated her. She never really knew why, but they always avoided her and kept their distance from her. She assumed they all thought she was crazy because she had a habit of tattling on those who broke the rules or trying to arrest those who did. But that was normal for her. She was raised by an FBI agent after all. It wasn't like she wanted to cause trouble like that, it was just how she was raised.

"So, it's just you who eats up here?" Pepper inquired.

Tony shook his head. "Nah, normally there's one more person. But he's making up a test he missed yesterday for History class."

"Is he a friend?" Pepper wondered aloud.

Tony nodded. "Sure, I've known him since I was a kid."

"Must be nice," Pepper said.

"Sure," Tony replied with a shrug. Pepper couldn't help to notice that he didn't seem as playful as what she found normal. No, playful wasn't the right word. "Actually, I'm going to head downstairs," Tony interrupted her thoughts. "enjoy your time on the roof."

As he walked towards the door, he took one last bite of her apple before tossing it back at her. She barely stopped the apple in its tracks, before it could smash into her freckled face. She frowned at it in distaste, setting it aside from the rest of her lunch. Then, without anyone to keep her company, she ate her homemade lunch in silence.

Some first day.

* * *

><p>It was a Monday, about two weeks since her first day at Tomorrow Academy, and she's gotten used to things. She's learned to recognize people by name instead of by face and she didn't need to look at her schedule to know what class she needed to go to each hour. Things had gotten easier and less complicated, that she could honestly say. But she'd be lying if she said that it had been nicer than it had been her first day.<p>

Although she had never done anything wrong, and she had only done what every other new student would have done. Yet, they still seemed to look at her as if she was crazy or insane. They avoided her like the plague. She wanted to say that even though she wasn't able to truly befriend a person, she at least had a talk buddy at lunch, but even that was a lie.

Ever since that first day up on the roof, Tony hasn't spoken to her once. It almost seemed as if the blue-eyed teen was avoiding her. It didn't help that she found out that Tony has the worlds worst attendence record ever. In the past two weeks alone, she was almost positive that he was at least absent for one week. But of course, she wasn't keeping track. But she definitely noticed when he wasn't there sitting next to her during first period.

She sighed, wishing that it was her free period that she enjoyed so much. Especially when she was able to go up on the roof and watch the birds soar through the clouds and the wind that blew through her red locks of hair. But instead, she was stuck in first period, sitting next to Tony, who for once seemed to be paying attention in class. Or at least, wasn't making any trouble for the teacher.

He looked especially grouchy today, which was why she was surprised when the bell rang with no trouble from Tony. He silently gathered up his books and left the room at his own pace. She watched as he left the classroom as if it filled with poisonous gas.

"Do you like him or something?"

Pepper's head snapped towards the voice that belonged to a blonde haired girl she's seen in the hallways many times since she's been here. Her hair was very blonde that stretched down just passed her shoulders. She always seemed to wear more makeup than what Pepper would consider necessary. And her outfits generally consisted of a skirt, heels, and something orange.

"No!" Pepper loudly protested, trying to stop her cheeks from reddening.

"Then why do you keep staring at him?" the yet-to-be-named teen asked.

"I'm not staring," Pepper insisted.

The blonde raised an eyebrow. "Well, it sure looked like you were. Anyway, I'd watch it if I were you. He's not the guy you want to be with. It'd never last. Trust me."

"What would you know?" Pepper demanded angrily, forgetting what the blonde was referencing. "Did you date him? Is that how you know?"

"Actually, we did date once," the no-named blonde responded. "As you can tell, it didn't end well. And I promise, that it will be the same with you if you date him."

Pepper shook her head. "I told you, I'm not interested in him. We don't even talk."

"The name's, Whitney, by the way," the blonde, now known as Whitney, said as she pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear, "in case you were wondering."

_Well, I wasn't wondering_, Pepper almost replied, but instead, she said, "My name's Pepper, nice to meet you."

Whitney gave Pepper a half-grin that Pepper decided looked like a half smirk and half smile. "I know, see you around."

Then the blonde beauty walked out of the classroom, her heels clicking on the hard flooring. Pepper, now frustrated and rushed, gathered up her school books and supplies into her arms as she rushed to her next class. Which, she had already forgotten was her free period.

* * *

><p>Eating in the cafeteria wasn't something she normally did, because she already made a habit of eating up on the roof, even if Tony seemed less than pleased to have her company than he had that first day. Not that he had been pleased that first time around in the first place. Now, instead of approaching her and getting all up in her business, he stuck to himself and his friend, whom she assumed was Rhodey. They haven't officially met, despite the fact that they share quite a few classes together.<p>

The one time he really approached her was last Friday, and she had thought that he was finally getting over his 'ignore Pepper' stage, and figured that he was coming over to steal her apple once more, but instead she got a cold shoulder.

"Can't you eat in the cafeteria like everyone else?" he had asked her, not even bothering to look into her eyes.

Used to having people not want her around, she had sighed with a roll of her eyes. "Aren't you included when you say everyone else?"

She had to admit, that the face he had made was absolutely hilarious. Plus, he actually looked into her eyes for a moment. He must have not been expecting those words to come out of her mouth, because his reaction was without a doubt adorable. If she could even use the word "adorable" to describe Tony. Maybe she was using the wrong word. Either way, it was nice to see that even she, the lame new kid in school, was able to surprise the biggest trouble maker in school.

He had scoffed, looking away once more. "Actually, no I'm not. Because I was here first and no one said you could come up here."

"You didn't seem to mind it the first time I came up," Pepper argued. "Actually, you made me feel quite welcome."

"Well I'm sorry if I sent mixed signals," Tony deadpanned. "Because I stole your apple to tell you to come back."

"Yeah, and I'm sorry that you forgot that you gave that apple back," she replied, a smirk making its way on her face. "I figured that meant I was welcome to come back anytime."

Tony groaned, and threw his arms into the air. "Fine. I'm done arguing. If I ask nicely, will you not eat up on the roof anymore?"

Pepper had tapped a finger on her chin, feining thought. "Hmm, depends on how nicely."

Tony stared at her as if expecting her to tell him that she was joking, When no words were said, he rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms. "Will you go eat in the cafeteria?" he looked at her expectantly, but found that she was raising an eyebrow at him. "..please?"

"Since you asked nicely," she had said, beginning to pack up her lunch, "I'll go, but I'm still allowed up here during free period."

Because they just so happened to share a free period as well as a common interest in the roof.

Which brought her to where she was now. Eating in the cafeteria that was practically filled to the brim with smelly teenagers and the grouchy teachers who got stuck watching over them. She was sitting almost shoulder to shoulder with people she considered strangers. Sure, she knew their names and saw their faces around, but she had no clue who they really were.

The girl sitting next to her vacated her seat and as Pepper bit into her apple, a broad-shouldered boy took the now empty seat next to her. When she glanced over, still chewing her apple, she managed to recognize this boy. She may be horrible with names and faces, but she had an easy time recognizing those who made an impression. And this boy, definitely made an impression. Not just because of his weird nickname, because she had a lot of trouble remembering it, but because he always made a big scene. Plus, he was half the reason why she knew the names of so many people already.

His name was Harold Hogan, people called him Happy. It took her a whole week to pick up on that one. After her first week, when she was still trying to get a hang of things around the new school, he had approached her. He had slung an arm over her shoulder as if the two of them had been best friends since childhood, and leaned in close as he pointed at people passing by the pair.

"That, is Rhona Erwin," he said loudly into her ear, "one of the smartest students in school, next to her is her brother, Andy."

Pepper tried shrugging off Happy's arm, only for his arm to tighten its grip. "You're Happy, right?"

He nodded. "That's right, Pepper Potts!" He looked around again and pointed a few more people and introduced them to her as they ignored the jersey-wearing jock. The next person, she already knew, and apparently Happy knew that. "You already know Tony Stark, so you probably also know Rhodey."

The name "Stark" sounded familiar for some reason. She could have sworn she's heard that name before, but she couldn't quite place a finger on it.

"Hey!" Happy called out to the pair even though the two were practically straight in front of them.

Happy tried rushing towards them, but had forgotten that he had his arm around her shoulder and had pushed her forward in the process. Being the clumsy person she was, she tripped. It was likely her least graceful fall yet and her most embarrassing. Especially as she was about to hit the floor when a hand suddenly caught her flailing arm by the wrist and steadied her enough so she didn't hit the ground.

The helpful hand was removed as quickly as it had come. At the time, she was too focused on the upcoming event of landing of her face to see who it was that helped her.

"Thanks," she had said despite not knowing who it was.

The bell rang for the end of lunch period before she could get an answer. Happy had slapped her on the shoulder as his goodbye as he rushed down the hallways while Tony and Rhodey had walked to class. She ended up just sighing and joining in with the rest of the crowd.

So, here she was sitting between a somewhat stranger with a name, and a stranger.

"Having fun?" Happy asked her.

She shrugged. "Just eating. Nothing too fun about that."

"That's because you're doing it all wrong, Pepper!" Happy stated, plucking a grape from her lunch. She was starting to wonder if that was a thing with the boys of Tomorrow Academy. Steal fruit from he new girl's lunch. "You've got to do it like this." he tossed the grape into the air and caught it in his mouth. "Now you try."

Pepper could hardly see how playing with food was fun, but with what little she knew about Happy, she knew it was best to just go along with his antics. She pulled a grape off it's stem tossed it lightly into the air, only to get hit in the eye with the grape as gravity brought the grape back down.

"You didn't even aim," Happy said with a shake of his head as he stole another grape. "You've got to do it like this," he tossed the grape carefully into the air and caught it in his waiting mouth as a demonstration.

Pepper mentally sighed as she grabbed another grape. But before she could even begin aiming her grape, the bell ran, signally the end of lunch. This time Pepper verbally sighed as she realized that in the process of finding an open seat and thinking of so many things and playing with grapes, she had lost track of time and wasn't able to finish her lunch. Lunch had been so much easier when she was able to eat on the roof.

"Maybe next time, Pepper," Happy said, slapping her on the shoulder as his customary goodbye. "See you later!"

He rushed off into the crowd of teenagers, while Pepper silently packed up her lunch and threw away the wrappers. She wasn't entirely sure that she would consider Happy a friend, but so far, he was closest thing she had to one so far.

* * *

><p>Another few weeks or so passed by and she finally managed to move into the new house completely. There wasn't a single box left unpacked and her dad had finally gone out and bought some real food that didn't come out of a box. She was getting really sick of eating frozen TV dinners and plain noodles with butter. Then, with the help of their friendly neighbor, she was able to arrange her room as she pleased, which was her favorite part of the move.<p>

It wasn't just her house that she had grown fully accustomed to. She'd learned the route by heart on how to get to places nearby the new house. Places like the grocery story, the book store, the library, and even the new candy shop that opened up across from the fancy clothing store. She even found herself a favorite coffee shop just a few blocks away from home. She even figured out the streets and areas of the city that she should avoid.

Even more of a plus, she was happy to say that she officially befriended Happy and this other redheaded girl, who went by the name, Annie. She even learned the basics of who to avoid and who she wanted to get on their good side. Hanging out with Happy, who apparently knew anything and everything about the people and the happenings in Tomorrow Academy, worked wonders in helping Pepper in understanding what she needed to know in her new school.

As she already knew or at least suspected, Tony wasn't the person she would want to get on his bad side, but he wasn't someone she would benefit from befriending either. According to both Happy and Annie, Tony wasn't exactly a mean person, he was just more trouble then he was worth. She was best off not getting involved with him in any way shape or form. Yet, Annie told her that it was perfectly fine talking to his friend Rhodey. Actually, Annie even encouraged her to talk to him some time just to see the difference between the two, who seem nearly inseparable. Another person she was told to avoid being on the bad side of, was Rhona. Not so much her brother, but she was definitely a person to avoid angering. Annie warned her to avoid Whitney as much as she could. Apparently, getting involved with anything Whitney was nothing but bad news. There was also this group of three boys who thought they had the run of the school, Pepper was told to just avoid making contact with them too.

All this information saved Pepper a ton of trouble. Knowing just who she can trust to be nice and understanding of her and who would only end up hurting her, was the greatest thing she learned in school. At least socially wise.

Within these past few weeks, Pepper was proud to say that for the first time since she moved to the big city of New York City with her dad, she finally felt happy and content. Especially with two new people she was able to call her friends. She just hoped that things remained that way for a long while.

**So, a little different, yeah? Pepper and Tony seem WAY OoC, but I intended for them to be that way. It's a sort of AU story, I think that's what this story would be classified as, so expect OoC characters. This will probably be the longest chapter, but who knows? And it was kind of a "filler" chapter too, but I hope to pick up the pace in the next chapter or so. :) So don't be discouraged! **

**Fun Fact: _I like all sorts of different music. But I tend to favor rock music over others. _**

**Thanks for reading and please, can you guys share what you think? Should I continue this story? It's a bit different than my other stories so I wanted to know. :) Thanks! **

**Hugs and Love, SilverPedals! :D**


	2. Partners

**Here's another chapter for you guys! Thanks for all the positive feedback! :) Glad to see that this is a good different. Since I got such a good reaction, I felt like I should get a few chapters in. This chapter seems to go a little everywhere, yet nowhere at the same time, it was bugging me, but I couldn't figure a different way to write it. But I hope you guys will still enjoy it.**

**Disclaimer: IMAA does not belong to me. It belongs to its rightful owners.**

She felt as if the attention of the entire class was directly on her. Yet, as she tried to make herself seem as invisible as possible by slouching in her chair and letting her red hair cover her face as she stared intently at the paper that held her notes, it didn't change a thing. Even the laughter felt as if it was directed at her. Almost as if they were laughing at her vain attempt to make herself invisible. They knew how epically she was failing at trying to become as small as humanly possible in her chair.

But in the end, not a single pair of eyes was on her. None of the laughter was even directed at her. This was what it was like sitting next to Tony Stark.

The first time this situation happened, she felt almost swamped by the feeling. She wasn't all that fond of being ignored, but she was even less fond of having the spot light. And of course, having the big mouth she had, which she became very good at hiding, she had practically yelled at all of them to stop laughing at her. They definitely weren't laughing at her before, but as soon as those dumb words escaped her lips, the laughter was definitely directed at her then. But after that little accident, she learned to double check that the attention and laughter was focused on her before she even muttered a word. And ever since then, the attention was never on her, even though it felt like it every single time.

"Mr. Stark!" the teacher scolded, her hands pressed against her hips. "Enough with the distractions."

Pepper could almost feel Tony's customary smirk. "But I'm not doing anything."

"Then why is the whole class looking directly at you," their teacher, Ms. Darren, inquired. When Pepper peeked through her hair, she could see Ms. Darren's fingers tap impatiently against her hips. She knew it. Tony was going to get sent to the office. Again.

"I'm incredibly handsome and have amazing hair," Tony said in response, his tone dripping with arrogance. Another thing Pepper has added to her list within the first month of being at Tomorrow Academy.

Half the class gave a laugh while the other half just rolled their eyes. But the teacher wasn't impressed. And if it mattered, Pepper wasn't either. "Mr. Stark, do I have to send you to the office?"

"You don't have to," Tony assured her, "but if you must..."

Tony slid his chair back as if he was going to stand up, but Ms. Darren held up a hand. "I'm willing to let this slide this once if you promise not to cause any more interruptions for the remainder of the hour."

Pepper glanced over to see Tony pretending to give her offer some thought. "Deal. Now please, go on with teaching us about whatever it was you were teaching."

Ms. Darren pressed her lips into a straight line, almost as if she was forcing herself not to respond. With a sigh, she lowered her hands from her hips and flipped the page on her teaching book in front of her. "As I was saying..."

The bell for second period rang, interrupting the teacher's voice, which brought much amusement to the rest of the class as they left the room in a mad rush for their lockers.

"Mr. Stark, I'd like to have a word with you," Ms. Darren called as Tony was about to step out the door.

Pepper just gave a shake of her head as Tony passed by her. Just an average morning at Tomorrow Academy.

* * *

><p>The day went by relatively slow; it seemed like every day went by too slow. If she had to guess, she'd say it was because almost every day started off badly because she had to have first period with Tony. If the day didn't start out well, the rest of the day can't go much better. Well, for the most part, at least. It didn't help that they had a pop quiz in physics and they had homework in just about every subject. Plus, her clothes smelt like milk, fruit, and pizza sauce and because she was currently in her last period class, there was nothing much she could do about it.<p>

The story behind that, wasn't very long. In its entirety, Annie had a slip up with her untied shoe and before they knew it, pepper had fallen victim to Annie's lunch. The school had a great laugh at that. Fortunately for her, she wasn't the one to succumb to their laughter and was able to calmly walk out to leave to clean herself up. All while Annie followed her, stringing out a million apologies.

At the present time, there was about five minutes left of class, if even. And yet the teacher was spending it angrily lecturing them about the use of electric devices after he caught a student texting. Although she really couldn't care less about what the teacher was doing, she wasn't pleased with this distraction. She already got enough distractions in first period and any other class period that she shared with Tony. It was a cold splash to her face when she realized that Tony wasn't the only troublemaker in the school. He wasn't the only one who served as a constant thorn in the side for all that surrounded him.

The bell rang, abruptly interrupting the teachers lecture. He straightened himself with a sigh and retired himself to his desk as the students of Tomorrow Academy piled out of his class like a pack of hunting wolves preying on a rabbit.

Pepper followed behind them and assumed a place in the crowd as she approached her locker. She moved promptly as she packed her school books into her backpack. She was about to swing her backpack over her shoulder, when her sleeve was abruptly, albeit gently, tugged outward. She almost dropped her backpack as she spun around.

"What is that?" the blue-eyed teen eyed her sleeve with curiosity. "It smells," he commented before she could respond, leaning over to smell it. "Is that pineapple?"

"And milk and pizza sauce," Pepper informed Tony, using her free hand to push his hand away. She finished swinging her backpack over her shoulder and closed her locker.

"An interesting mix," Tony stated, matching his pace with hers when she started walking down the halls. "Is that a new form of perfume these days?

Pepper sighed and sped up her pace, not giving him an answer. With the day she had, she didn't know if she could handle much of him. She had hoped that she might lose him in the crowd as she left, but he had the advantage. He was tall with long legs; it wasn't going to be so easy to outrun him. "I'm guessing you want something other than a smell at my dirty shirt."

"Right," Tony replied, scratching at the back of his neck. She had to wonder if he was nervous. But Tony wasn't the person to be nervous, especially when talking to her. "You know that project in history that we got today?"

"Yeah, but how would you know?" Pepper inquired.

"Rhodey told me," Tony stated simply, knowing exactly what Pepper was indirectly telling him. "Anyway, I was told that we could have partners."

"Did Rhodey reject you?" Pepper teased, knowing full well what Tony was about to ask her. "So, I'm your second choice, huh?"

"No," Tony shook his head, "Someone else asked him and since I wasn't there...yeah, you know the rest. So, do you mind being my partner?"

For a moment, Pepper actually considered accepting his request. But on second thought, she knew exactly what his plan was. He was just using her so she'd do most of the project and he'd get the points. And being used wasn't going to work for her. "Actually, I already have a partner."

"Who?" Tony asked.

"Someone who's actually my friend," she responded, shifting the weight of her backpack. They were just stepping out of the school, the sunlight hitting them directly in the face. She stopped and turned to him once they reached the bottom of the steps. "Sorry, I hope you find a partner."

Tony narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Are you lying?"

Pepper frowned, but shook her head. "No, I actually do have a partner, because I actually have some friends."

"I have friends," Tony reminded her. "And my friend told me that you don't have a partner."

Pepper couldn't believe that he couldn't just accept that she didn't want to be partners. It was true, she really didn't have a partner. Happy had immediately asked Annie to be his partner, who accepted, albeit reluctantly. So she decided that since it was an option, she was going to go solo and do it herself. But Tony apparently didn't like going solo.

"Come on, being partners for a measly few days won't hurt anything," Tony tried to assure her, apparently noticing her reluctance. "We can split the work half and half."

She rose her eyebrows in a disbelieving manner. "Is that so?"

"It's a promise," he gave her his famous smirk combined with a confident wink.

She could only roll her eyes and give out a long sigh of defeat as she glanced down to the ground, knowing she was going to regret the decision. "Fine, but it's a onetime deal, okay?"

And when she looked up, she was surprised to find that his smirk was replaced with an exuberant smile, which sent Pepper's stomach into a fit of butterflies. "Deal," he said, holding out his hand.

* * *

><p>"So this is where you live," Tony said more as a statement than a question. She couldn't tell if he was saying it as a compliment or an insult. Her house wasn't big by any means, but she liked to think that it wasn't that small either.<p>

"Yep, this is my house," Pepper replied, leading the way to the front door.

"It needs a little something," Tony commented, craning his head to get a full view of everything. "Maybe some plants by the steps or a tree."

"We just moved," Pepper defended, "we haven't had time to do anything to the yard yet," she gave a sigh, willing herself not to take his words to heart. "Look, my dad has a hardworking job, he's not home often and I have school and my mom, well, she lives halfway across the country. So don't be commenting on the house or anything."

"Alright, I'll be nice," Tony replied. "Oh, is your dad home right now?"

Pepper opened the door and invited the blue-eyed teen into her home, trying to comprehend how she even agreed to do the project at her house. He had something along the lines of 'my house is a mess' and insisted that if they wanted to get something done, it best be done at her house.

"He should be," Pepper finally replied when she kicked her shoes off in the closet.

Tony imitated her actions as he kicked his own shoes off next to hers. He followed her silently, much to Pepper's relief. She glanced back occasionally as they delved deeper into her home to see him examining his surroundings. It was nice to finally see him silent and thoughtful than loud and rude.

"Who's that I see?" her dad said, when they passed by the living room.

Pepper stopped and waved her greeting to her dad. "This is Tony, we have a project in history, do you mind if he stays over for a bit?"

Her dad got up off the couch he was sitting on, setting aside some papers he had on his lap. "As long as you keep your door open, I'm fine with it." he smiled politely as he offered his hand to Tony. "I'm Virgil Potts, Pepper's dad. Nice to meet one of my daughter's friends."

Thankfully, Tony kindly accepted her dad's hand and shook it. He returned the smile. "Tony Stark, nice to meet you too, Mr. Potts."

"Please, just call me Virgil, I'm not at work," Virgil replied, releasing Tony hand.

Tony nodded and before he could say anything else, Pepper quickly snatched his wrist and tugged him toward her room so they could get to work already. She wasn't taking any risk with letting the two converse for long periods of time. She didn't want to know what could happen. With her dad being an FBI agent and Tony being known for bringing up rude comments to about every adult he sees, she feared what might happen if Tony said the wrong thing.

"Wait," her dad stopped them, just before they could get out of hearing range. Pepper peeked into the living room curiously. Her dad waved her over to come back. Tony followed her again as she returned to her father's side.

"What is it, dad?"

"You said your name is, Tony Stark?" her dad directed his question to Tony, who nodded. "As in Howard Stark, CEO of Stark International?"

"Yeah, that's my dad," Tony confirmed, a distant look entering his face, "or was..."

Then it suddenly occurred to Pepper, why his name sounded so familiar when she first heard his last name that one day. His dad was the CEO of Stark International, a very well-known modern technology company. Was, being the key word, saying that the famous, billionaire genius was no longer living. The last she heard, it has been changed into a weapons company and is owned by some guy or another. She can never remember.

"Right," her dad began, sounding a little embarrassed. "The car crash...I'm so sorry."

Tony shook his head, and shrugged. "It's fine," the vibe Tony was giving off, Pepper knew that 'fine' wasn't used truthfully. "It's been a while, so I...uh yeah, It's fine."

"Alright, now that you two have met," Pepper broke in, knowing that Tony needed to escape the conversation, "we have a project that needs to get done."

Once again, she grabbed at his wrist and dragged him behind her to her room before her dad could say another word. Tony went along with it silently, most likely lost in his thoughts or maybe he was overwhelmed by the unwanted topic her dad had accidentally brought up.

"Sorry about my dad," Pepper apologized, "he's been at work too much, and he's probably really tired."

For once, Tony seemed at a loss for words as his eyes swept across the room in an investiture manner. "Nice room," he commented, flat out ignoring her words. "Small, but cozy."

"I thought I said no judging the house," Pepper said with a sigh. She should have known that his peace and cooperation wouldn't last. It was too good to be true.

Tony slipped off his backpack approached her bed. "I wasn't judging, I was just making a statement. No harm done."

"Our project," Pepper said, "could we get to work on it already?"

"Right," Tony said, as if remembering it for the first time, "let's get going."

* * *

><p>Working on the project went surprisingly well, much to Pepper's relief. They worked diligently and without distraction the entire time. Pepper had been worried that Tony would mess around and be nothing but a distraction, but he was exceptionally the exact opposite of what he was at school. He didn't have idle chit chat with her, he didn't try to mess around with the things in her room, and he didn't even shove the work onto her. But that didn't mean that the day went by with no incidents. A little after an hour of working, Tony had suddenly stated that he didn't feel well and then excused himself from her house and went home. Although they had worked hard, they were just barely halfway done. Had they had longer to do this project, she'd be more willing to let it slide, but they had two days–one day now–to finish the project.<p>

This was the exact topic she wanted to speak with Tony about, but as of right now, he was nowhere to be found. It was the following day after he had come over to work on the project, and it was the middle of free period. Tony wasn't anywhere to be found. She looked up on the roof, where he's normally sitting by the ledge or on the raised platform, but it was empty. The second place she thought to look would be one of the teachers' rooms, but all the teachers said that he wasn't seen anywhere.

"The one time I actually want to talk to him," she whispered to herself as she retired from her search.

It was later that day at lunch, when she decided that talking to Tony was her priority before lunch. She just reached the top of the stairs, where she knew Tony would be. Even when he's determined to skip every class period, she still sees him go up to eat lunch.

Instead, when she opened the door, she came up short and he wasn't there.

"He's not here."

The sudden voice startled her. "What?"

She pivoted on her feet to meet face to face with Rhodey. He gave her a short wave from where he sat beside his lunch. "Tony. He's sick today."

"I was afraid of that," Pepper sighed. "I guess I'll just eat my lunch then if I won't find him here."

"You can eat up here with me if you want," Rhodey offered.

"Really? You're not going to kick me off or politely ask me to eat in the cafeteria?" Pepper questioned. She wasn't trying to judge, but he was the friend of Tony.

"Tony may like eating alone, but I'm not like him," Rhodey informed her, then added jokingly, "I'm actually nice to others."

"I've heard, you're Rhodey, right?"

He nodded with a gentle smile. "James Rhodes, or as I prefer, Rhodey. Yes," he replied easily. "And you're the newest new student, Pepper."

"Patricia Potts, or as I prefer, Pepper," Pepper quoted with a laugh.

Annie was right, compared to Tony, Rhodey was fun to talk to. He didn't make idiotic, rude comments about the little things. It made her question how the two even became friends if they were that different. Especially considering how close the two seemed. She wasn't keeping track, but she was almost positive that the two walked home together and to school together. It was almost as if they were connected by the hip, and were inseparable as they said.

"Nice to officially meet you," Rhodey said, then he gestured across from him, "now come sit. I don't bite."

Pepper took a seat just a couple feet in front of him, quick to open up her lunch. After all, she actually was hungry. It felt nice finally being able to eat her lunch back on the roof. Especially since this time around, she wasn't eating alone. Also on the plus side, she was eating across someone that didn't want her gone.

As they ate, Rhodey asked her a bunch of questions someone would normally ask the new kid. He asked her if she liked it there at Tomorrow Academy, if she liked her friends, her classes, her new house, the city, and other things like that. In return for answers, he easily supplied her with answers to the same questions.

"You said Tony was sick," Pepper mentioned, a few minutes before the bell as they packed up their lunch. "Did he go to the doctor?"

Rhodey seemed to hesitate before answering. "Not exactly," he finally replied, sounding uneasy, "he's not a big fan of the doctor."

"Afraid of needles?" Pepper joked lightly, trying to imagine Tony at the doctors when they tried giving him a shot.

"That would make a lot of sense," Rhodey gave a short laugh. "But I don't think it's like that."

"Bad experience?" Pepper guessed, trying to find other reasons why Tony Stark would be afraid of the doctor.

She still wasn't able to wrap that new discovery around her head. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that his dad was supposed to have been a genius. Likely one of the smartest people in the United States, if not the world. Then there was Tony, who wasn't very secretive about the grades he had. And she had to wonder what had happened between father and son.

"Something like that," Rhodey shrugged, just in time for the bell to ring. He gave her a wave. "Hey, maybe I'll see you around."

"That's unlikely if Tony's around," Pepper absentmindedly commented. "But do you have his number? I have to talk to him later about what we're going to do about the project."

Rhodey seemed uneasy again, but recovered quickly enough to give her a nod. "Yeah, sure. I'll have it written down for you after school, is that alright?"

Pepper nodded. "Okay, thanks."

* * *

><p>Turns out, she tried so hard for nothing. He hadn't once answered her phone call, even after what seemed like the fiftieth voice message. Yeah, she was pretty sure she was going to hear a lot from him the next day, but she couldn't care less, because he was going to hear quite a bit more from her. While he was out sick, whether or not it was true, she was stuck finishing <em>their<em> project that _they_ both had due the next day, when she could have been done with it hours ago. Sick or not, she was not going to let him get by that easy. Her friends had told her not to get on Tony's bad side, well they forgot to tell Tony not to get on her bad side.

She was currently lying on her stomach, trying to tie together the last part of the project with her pencil pressed into her cheek. A light knock at her door broke her thoughts.

"How's the project?"

She craned her neck back to bring her dad into her sight. "Alright, I'm just tired." She noticed that he was carrying a stack of papers and a folder, which wasn't something new per se, but from what she could tell, those weren't his normal stack of papers. "What's that?"

He looked at the items in his hand, with equal curiosity. "I think she said it was for your project, but my mind was elsewhere."

Curious, she pushed herself to her knees and dropped her pencil as she accepted the papers. She scanned over the top one, and that was all she needed to see. "Who did you say gave these to you?"

"I believe her name was Roberta Rhodes," Her dad responded, before nodding, "Yeah, that was her name. She knocked on the door and asked me to give these to you."

Rhodes? Like Rhodey, as in James Rhodes? But the papers in front of her had Tony's name on them, his handwriting, and his random doodles in the corner. Why did Rhodey's mom, or presumably his mom, have Tony's folder with homework in it?

"Oh great," she spoke softly through her confusion, "they're for the project."

"Perfect, now you can finish your project sooner!" her dad cheered, then paused. "Oh, I almost forgot, I got called in again. I probably won't be back until later. So, leftovers are in the fridge."

Pepper frowned, but nodded, erasing her frown. "Okay, dad. Good luck."

He nodded and left the room with quick, uncomfortable hug and a wave. Pepper waved back, even though her dad had already left. She fell back onto her heels, glancing over the new information she was given, hoping that it was the information she actually needed or if it was even useful. Soon, she discovered that not only did he get the right information and more, it was actually plenty useful. He had even left a quick note to her, reading: "Since I couldn't help out in person."

Although his penmanship was barely even legible, she found herself smiling at the gesture.

* * *

><p>"Who's Roberta Rhodes?" she found herself asking the following day.<p>

Tony spun around at her outburst. After all, she literally just burst onto the roof and popped that question on him before he could realize that it was her. "Who?"

"Roberta Rhodes," Pepper repeated, "the woman who brought the stuff for the project."

"Where is that, by the way?" Tony asked, recovering smoothly. "You didn't keep my folder, did you?"

"No, it's in my locker," Pepper replied. "But who is she."

"She's Rhodey's mom," Tony finally answered. "Why, do you need her?"

"Why was Rhodey's mom bringing your stuff to my house?"

Naturally, Pepper was a curious person. She wanted to know the answer to anything she found worth looking into. But maybe she was being a little too demanding of someone who just did her a solid and helped with the project when she most needed it.

Tony leaned back against the ledge. "Why is that any of your business?"

His tone told her to drop the question and move on, but that was the last thing she wanted to do. If anything, she wanted to press for an answer. "Because I was the one who had to do all the work. Just as I expected when you asked me to be your partner."

He stared at her for a second, seeming angry. "Are you seriously blaming me for being sick? You know, I didn't have to send all that help. Maybe you should be thanking me."

Pepper frowned lightly. "Thank you." she paused for a moment. "But you couldn't answer my phone calls and at least explain why you couldn't help me?"

"I left my phone in my locker," Tony sighed as he shrugged, pushing himself away from the ledge. "Look, let's not fight over this. It's a Friday, you're probably just tired, and I'm still recovering from my cold."

She sighed as well, glancing over the ledge and to the city. "I guess you're right," she softly spoke, "but honestly, Thank you."

His blue eyes briefly met with hers before he quickly turned to face the streets of New York. She didn't know if she was imagining it or not, but she could have sworn she saw him blush.

**How'd it go? Still good? Hopefully that's the case, because I'm having fun writing this story, and hopefully it's the same for you guys when reading it.**

**Fun Fact: _I can't stand sleeping on my back. I can only sleep on my side or my stomach._**

**I don't know when the next chapter will be out, but I have high hopes that it'll be soon.**

**Hugs and Love, SilverPedals! :D**


	3. That Dang Smile

**The wait was longer than I expected, sorry. It deleted almost half of my progress the other day after my computer reset on me without warning to do some updates. :( And I was also working on other stories. But here it is! :)**

**Disclaimer: IMAA does not belong to me and never will it ever. (That made no sense...)**

It was safe to say that Tony wasn't too happy about Pepper's and Rhodey's new-found friendship. Nobody could exactly say that he hated it, but one could definitely see that he wasn't fond of the fact either. Especially since their friendship came along with ignoring the little deal Tony and Pepper had with the whole roof situation during lunch. Meaning, Pepper was allowed to eat back up on the roof once more, despite Tony's complaints. His very verbal complaints that made his opinion very clear on how he felt about the whole thing. But he didn't give her much trouble when they made an alteration on their deal. She was allowed up there as much as she wanted, as long as it was just her. That was her compromise, to appease to Tony's demands. Much to Tony's pleasure, she didn't spend every day one the roof in the first place, to spend time with her other friends during lunch.

But even with this new agreement in place, Tony still wasn't too fond of the friendship between Rhodey and Pepper. Though it was, in a way, funny to watch the blue-eyed teen pout when he didn't get his precious time with his best friend. It turns out, Tony's quite the possessive person when it comes to Rhodey. He definitely hates having to share the boy. At least when it was with her. For the most part, though, Tony stuck to ignoring the pair when they spoke or interacted in any way shape or form.

If he wasn't ignoring them, he was taking advantage of the extra time he spent with her around. He'd often mess with her in different ways when Rhodey wasn't looking or was away briefly. He was almost like a child trying to get away with something when their parents weren't looking. At first, he did little things like doing what he did the first day they met, like steal her apple or whatever else Pepper had for lunch. But after a while, he became much bolder. He'd dip his fingers in the fruit juice from her lunch and proceed to splash her with them, just to see what her reaction would be. Or crunch crackers over her hair. She'd only sigh scoot away, only for him to follow.

"Seriously?" he once asked, when he still hadn't gotten the proper reaction from her, "That doesn't bother you at all?"

She just shook her head. "I don't let bully's get to me," she simply responded, shaking the cracker crumbs from her hair. She knew that if she reacted in any way, he'd be encouraged to keep doing it.

"I'm not a bully," Tony had responded, crossing his arms in a pout. That got a good laugh out of Pepper.

Though it became bothersome when he got bored of trying to bug her by messing with her lunch. So, he took it upon himself to dig in her purse. Or "investigate" as he liked to call it. He claimed multiple times that he was just searching for some gum or a pencil or whatever stupid explanation he could think of, but she knew he was only doing it to get on her nerves. And he was loving every second of it, because unlike messing with her food, it actually did bug her. But thankfully, after a short while, Rhodey had picked up on Tony's actions and put a quick end to it.

For the time being, Tony has run out of ways to get on Pepper's nerves without alerting Rhodey to his actions. So he returned to his natural self and ignored her unless absolutely necessary, much to Pepper's relief.

Aside from that and first and second period, Pepper didn't have to deal with Tony very much, fortunately. She had a few other classes with the teen, but at least then he wasn't sitting anywhere near her. Which, she was very happy about, because interacting with Tony always result in nothing less than a headache, or in extremes, exhaustion. She often felt like she needed a long nap after being around him for more than a few minutes.

Which, was what Pepper was currently trying to explain to her friend, Annie.

"I already told you," Pepper said in slight annoyance, "we're not even friends."

"But you guys spend so much time together," Annie insisted.

"No, I only hang out with him, because I want to hang out with Rhodey, but if I want to do that, I have to deal with Tony," Pepper tried to explain for the millionth time.

"But don't you think he's hot?" Annie questioned randomly.

Pepper groaned and threw herself back on the couch. Maybe it wasn't best for Annie to spend the final half of the Friday at her house. Especially after having what seemed like an endless amount of coffee. "Just because he's good looking doesn't make him my friend, Annie."

"Ha!" Annie cheered in victory as she shoot up onto her feet. "So you admit that you do think he's attractive!"

Pepper rolled her eyes, wondering how Tony turned up in their conversation in the first place. Oh right, she had to open her mouth and tell her about his failed attempts to mess with her during her lunches on the roof. "How does that have anything to do with anything we were just talking about?"

Annie fell back on the couch with a shrug. "Nothing," she offered as an answer.

Pepper could only sigh as she had learned that Annie liked to bring up random topics for no apparent reason, but then again, Pepper seemed to do that often as well. So, she couldn't exactly complain about it.

"Hey, Happy's throwing a party," Annie reminded Pepper for the umpteenth time that day. "Are you going?"

"I don't know," Pepper replied softly as she contemplated the last party Happy had thrown. "What's it for this time? Because if it's another party celebrating the completion of his new bathroom, I'm not going."

"Actually, I don't really know this time," Annie paused, trying to dig the answer out of her mind.

Happy was very party-happy. He was constantly throwing some kind of party for the stupidest of reasons. She wasn't lying about the toilet-themed party. He literally threw a party in favor of his recently refurbished bathroom in his house. Parties weren't exactly Pepper's cup of tea in the first place. And she was definitely not up for another party where they played pin the toilet brush on the toilet or apple bobbing in a toilet shaped bowl—which was thankfully not a real toilet bowl.

"Oh wait, I remember," Annie exclaimed before frowning. "Remember his cat?"

"Didn't his cat die last month?" Pepper questioned.

Annie nodded. "Exactly one month, so he told me he was throwing a memorial party for his cat."

"I don't think I'll be going," Pepper spoke with a shake of her head. "It sounds too depressing to be a party."

"Yeah, that's what I told him, but he said that he didn't care," Annie spoke.

That was also Happy, who didn't care that he was throwing a horrible party. He just enjoyed throwing them and having people visit at his house. Which only happened when his parents were out of town, and that seemed happen more often than not. But he seemed to enjoy that fact so no one really worried about him being lonely.

"Do you think Tony would be there?" Annie suddenly asked.

"Seriously, you're bringing up Tony again?" Pepper demanded. "I don't care about him, Annie."

"What? I just thought it'd be cool if you, of all people, befriended _the_ Tony Stark," Annie sat forward on the couch with an excited smile on her face.

"Of all people," Pepper asked, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm sorry, Pepper, but you're probably the last person that Tony would be friends with," Annie explained, "I mean, I'm just as likely to befriend him as you are, so you're not the only one."

Pepper just stared, trying to understand Annie's logic.

"Look at it this way," Annie started, "If you become friends with him, you'll be the bravest person in the entire school, besides Rhodey."

"I don't want to be brave, I just want to go to school and hang out with my real friends," Pepper said, while gesturing to Annie and the blank spot where Happy would've been. "You and Happy."

"And Rhodey," Annie added. "Don't forget Rhodey."

Pepper nodded. "Sure, Rhodey as well."

"Hey, do you have any good movies?" Annie asked, hopping off the couch to head to where the movies were held.

Pepper sighed with a smile and a short laugh. There Annie goes on yet another lane of the seven-lane highway. _It's nice to have friends_, Pepper thought, remembering for the first few weeks, she had none.

* * *

><p>For Pepper, it was yet another quiet day at school the following Wednesday. It was primarily because the school of Tomorrow Academy was missing its resident troublemaker once again. Actually, that particular student has been absent since the first day of the week and was yet to return. This was a normal occurrence for her, so she learned to actually enjoy those days when he wasn't there to make distractions in class or to mess with her if she decided to have her lunch on the roof with them. But this specific day, Pepper wasn't too happy about the silence. At first, Pepper assumed it was because it was unlike Tony to miss so many days in a row and it was throwing off what she had learned to have as a routine. Then she assumed it was because he dad was off on a two week mission in some other state down south and her home was unnaturally silent as well. But when she went to lunch, she realized why it was such an unusual silence.<p>

Rhodey was absent as well.

Which, it wasn't exactly something too important, because after all, Tony wasn't the only one able to miss school. But according to Annie, Happy, and any other student in the school, Rhodey was yet to miss a day of school in the past two years. From what she heard and actually seen, Rhodey would go to school even if he looked like he was ready to fall over and collapse. So, it was a little concerning that he was gone. Today of all days, too. It was almost as if all the teachers agreed to make Wednesday a mass test day, because they a test in not one, and not two, but three classes.

But she pushed the concern to the back of her mind, deciding that it was just bad luck on Rhodey's part that he wasn't at school. She could only hope that he was alright if he was that bad to stay home from school. So, instead of eating lunch on the roof like she originally planned, she returned to the packed room that was the cafeteria.

As usual, it was messy and beyond loud and it was obvious that the teachers in charge weren't happy, as usual, and weren't in the best control. Pepper sat in her usual seat beside Happy and across from Annie on the edge of one of the many packed tables in the cafeteria.

"No luck?" Annie questioned, swirling her fork in what Pepper thought was applesauce. She couldn't tell exactly. Which was why she ate lunches from home as much as possible. "I forgot, Rhodey was gone today."

Pepper internally smiled, seeing through Annie's emotions perfectly. It was almost painfully obvious that the girl liked Rhodey in more than just a friendly way, but of course, the redhead would never admit to that. "I noticed," Pepper verbalized. "Do you know why?"

If anyone knew, it'd be Annie or Happy, because even though they weren't the most well-known students in the school, they somehow knew everything about anything in the school.

Annie shook her head as well as Happy. "I wish, it's probably really big, because for Rhodey to miss school, he's probably unable to move or something." Annie said. "You know what I wish? I wish that I could just read minds or something so I can just know the answer right now."

"Or I could give you his number," Pepper offered.

"You have his number?" Annie demanded.

"Not yet, but I can ask for you."

"Would you? Oh thank you, Pepper!"

"Or maybe," Happy interjected with glee, "he's like a secret-agent and he has to leave the country for secret missions! Maybe he's in Hong Kong—or wait! The Bahamas!"

Pepper mentally face palmed, knowing that Annie was probably doing the same thing. "No, Happy," Pepper denied, "There is no way that Rhodey is a secret-agent."

Happy pouted and returned to his lunch in silence—or as silent as that teen can get. Which wasn't very silent, since he just turned and hollered across the cafeteria to some kid or another. It was a very normal occurrence at the Tomorrow Academy, Pepper thought.

* * *

><p>The rest of the day passed with extreme sluggishness, making the day feel as if weeks had passed by in a single day. When she got home, it was just as silent and vacant as school had felt. With her dad not home, she couldn't hear the TV he kept on as background noise as he worked or his constant phone conversations so the house really felt desolate and abandoned. But, she found herself used to this kind of event after all the years her dad has been an FBI agent.<p>

She didn't really feel like doing anything but sleep, but knowing that even with the three tests, she still had more homework that what she was comfortable with. So, she immediately set her mind on completing that before doing anything else.

Which was what she was doing when something—more like, someone—interrupted her.

"You dropped your key," he, the person now standing in her bedroom doorway, said.

She just about hit the ceiling in her fright, and literally toppled off her bed with a crash. She threw herself up into a defensive position, one that her father had taught her many years ago, and prepared to strike at the person standing in her doorway. But then immediately lowered her arms when she realized who it was.

"Tony!?" It was an understatement to say that she was shocked. Actually, it'd be even more of an understatement to say that she was just angry. "What are you doing here?"

"I did try knocking," he responded as if that was natural response to her question, as if he didn't just break into her house unannounced. "But you didn't answer."

"That means go away!" Pepper snapped, trying to wave him away. She actually didn't hear any knocking, but she was focused on some pretty hard questions for their physics class. But she wasn't going to let Tony know. "So, get out."

"Don't need to be rude," Tony commented, before waving a key in front of him. "Besides, you dropped this key outside your door. I couldn't just leave it there."

He tossed the key onto the bed behind her with ease, before sliding his hands in his pockets. Pepper stared at him, expecting him to start explaining why he was here in the first place, because he wasn't just here to return the key she dropped. When he said nothing, she cleared her throat. "Are you going to explain yourself, or what? Because I have homework to do."

"Right," Tony nodded and craned his head to search around the room. "Did I forget anything here from when we were working on our project?"

"I don't think so," Pepper answered, trying to think back to that day. "Why?"

"I lost something. It's about this big," Tony paused to demonstrate the small size with his hands, "and it's this ugly teal color, you haven't seen it?"

Pepper pursed her lips in thought. It actually sounded familiar to something she had found a couple days after they worked on the project together. She found it laying on the floor in the bathroom behind the sink for some reason. Originally, she hadn't thought much about it, figuring it was something of her dads. But now that Tony mentions it that must have been what he lost. She nodded finally. "Oh yeah, I think I know what you're talking about."

She pulled a daring move and left him alone in her room while she left to the bathroom to retrieve the object at Tony's request. She left it in the bathroom in the cabinet, thinking that her dad dropped it when grabbing something in there, but now she knew that that wasn't the case. She hadn't even thought about opening it, since after all, it was a container.

"Is this it?" she wondered as she entered her room.

Tony turned from where he was staring at a pile of pictures Pepper had stacked on her dresser and smiled in relief. "Oh, you are a life saver, Pepper!"

Pepper blinked, not expecting that reaction out of him, when he stepped closer to reclaim his lost 'treasure'. "What is it?"

Tony shoved it in to his pocket as if it was second nature and shrugged. "Nothing you'd care about," he responded easily, that tone of 'none of your business' entering his voice.

"Why's it so important than? You did call me a life saver," Pepper dared to press. He did, in fact, walk into her house unannounced.

"It was just an expression," Tony explained, glancing away from Pepper's curious gaze. It took just that for Pepper to realize how pale the blue-eyed boy was. "Anyway, thanks for not throwing it away."

He turned to leave, but Pepper stopped him. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Of course not," Tony immediately replied. "I was absent for the past few days for a reason. And I'll likely be missing tomorrow, too."

Pepper had to feel a bit bad at that, because she was convinced that he was just skipping again. But now that she knew that he really was sick, at least for the most part, she felt bad for assuming that he was pulling another 'skip school' event. Though, he was asking for it with the amount of times he actually did skip school.

"Well," Pepper began, not necessarily sure what to say to that, "did you go to the doctor?"

Tony raised an eyebrow, probably not expecting to get a full conversation about his health out of her. "Not really, we're guessing it's just a bad case of the flu."

"Oh," Pepper said awkwardly. "Well, I hope you get better."

Tony was already half way out of her room, before stopping and giving her a smile. The one that always makes her stomach do a flip to. "Me too," he replied before exiting

* * *

><p>Tony was true to his word when he said that he wasn't going to be at school the following day, and the next day as well. Well, he was there for the first part of the day, but sometime after lunch, he must have gone home because she hadn't seen him walk out with Rhodey after school like she normally does. She had asked Rhodey about where he went, and he just shrugged and said that he didn't know. He said best chances were, was that Tony skipped the last half of the school day.<p>

Speaking of Rhodey, it was still a mystery on why he was absent.

"It's kind of personal," Rhodey had replied when she tried asking.

She decided to respect his answer and just went on with another random subject, because she did tend to ramble about a bunch of random things. She hadn't realized to what extent until Rhodey stopped her and told her to take a breath and speak slower. She just laughed it off and continued on her high speed conversation. For his sake, though, she tried to slow it down just a tad. But apparently, that didn't help much. But she did manage to get his phone number for Annie, which was a definite plus on her part.

"It's rude to ignore people you know."

Pepper looked away from the clock she had found herself staring at and shook her head clear of her daze to find one of the few people in the school she did not want to see.

"I'm sorry," Pepper lied, clear that she wasn't sorry at all, "I dozed off."

The girl before her, pulled her hair behind her ear before placing a perfectly manicured hand on her hip. "Right," she rolled her eyes, "as I was asking before, are you and Tony a thing?"

Pepper practically choked on air. "What?"

"You know, like dating?"

"Whitney," Pepper began, trying to make herself as clear as day, "I am _not_ dating Tony."

"Because nothing good will come of it," Whitney assured Pepper.

"I don't care," Pepper promised, "You want to know why? It's because we're not dating!"

Whitney shrugged lightly and carelessly as if she wasn't being offending at all. "Don't be so snappy, I just wanted to make sure you understand that dating him will only hurt you. I'm just trying to protect you."

"Protecting me from something that will never happen," Pepper informed the blonde. "But thanks for the kind offer."

She was starting to regret deciding to stay back after school to attend a study group Annie had gathered in the school commons area. Where was Annie anyway? Either way, apparently Whitney had also stay behind for some strange reason that wasn't likely to be for studying reasons. Not if she decided to spend her study time bugging Pepper.

"Well, I did try," Whitney said before walking off.

Pepper just gave off a sigh of annoyance and returned her gaze back to her study materials, where she was struggling to answer yet another physics problem. The chapter they were on for some reason, she's been struggling with understanding. Which was half the reason why she stayed at school for the evening.

She set down her pencil trying to think of it in another way, but before her mind could think of anything her pencil was picked up. "Try doing this."

Once again, she nearly fell out of her chair, thankfully not successful this time. "Stop doing that!"

The owner of the voice sat down beside her and slid her paper closer to him. "Doing what?"

"Scaring me," Pepper told him, "and didn't you leave already? At like, lunch?"

"Yeah, I came back," Tony, the one who scared her, shrugged. "Not much else to do." He returned his attention back to the paper and much to her surprise, he stared leading her though the steps. He set the pencil down when he was finished and gave her a thumbs up. "Get it now?"

Pepper couldn't help but stare. "But…" she clearly didn't understand what just occurred in front of her. Not only did the concept of what the whole chapter was basically about, but Tony just answered a question. A question she never would have guessed that he would have known. Not with the grades he had. And here she was, _learning_ something new and something that had come quite difficultly for her by the last person she expected to learn something from.

"It just takes some practice," he informed her, looking away from her shocked stare. "What?"

She shook the shock out of her head and blinked a few times. "How'd you do that?"

"What, this?" he tapped the paper in front of them, and Pepper nodded. "I am the son of Howard Stark you know. I learned from the best ever since I was young."

Pepper looked down quickly. "Right, I just thought,"

"Because my grades are low, I'm stupid?" Tony finished for her when she couldn't finish her own sentence. "Well, now you know my secret. Just don't tell anyone, okay?"

"But why?" Pepper asked. "You can get good grades and go to a good school."

"Why go if I already know everything? I don't need further education," Tony announced, his arrogance showing through again. "Besides, everyone thinks I'm a major screw up anyway."

"You're not a screw up," Pepper tried to assure him, even though he didn't even seem hurt by the fact. "But if you get good grades, you can prove them wrong."

"I don't need to prove them wrong," Tony said. "Plus, it's more fun and less pressure this way."

She could that she was getting nowhere with this conversation so she decided to drop it. Even though she wanted to know more on why he decided to throw his grades away when he could pretty much ace every class. Though, she couldn't really say that he'd ace every class, because really she'd only seen him answer one physics question. And that didn't necessarily make him a straight-A student, but it still made her curious on why he didn't keep his grades up knowing full well that he can do it.

"Weren't you just talking to Whitney?" Tony suddenly asked.

Pepper nodded and the unpleasant short conversation the two had. "Yeah."

"Just ignore her," Tony advised her. "She doesn't know how to let anything go."

"Didn't you guys date once?" Pepper blurted out, much to her own surprise.

Tony just raised an eyebrow. "Only for a few weeks, I guess we didn't exactly end it on good terms. She's bitter that I couldn't make much of the dates."

"I can tell," Pepper commented dryly.

"Sorry," Tony sighed. "She's not exactly fun to be around. She used to be though…"

His tone said that they were once close and gave Pepper the impression that the two must have been pretty good friends once upon a time. It made her curious on what had happened that split the two apart so much. Maybe it was because they started dating and it wasn't meant to be and that drove a wall between the two. Pepper couldn't answer that.

Tony was tapping his fingers on the table in the awkward silence before giving out a long breath. "I'm going to go, so see you later, maybe?"

"Sure…" was the only thing Pepper could think of saying at the time. Neither of them every really spoke of the next time they'd meet. It normally just happened.

"Cool," and there it was. His dang smile that made her stomach do flips.

**So how'd you guys like this one? Still good? I'd hope so, I really am working hard guys. :) Annie's quite a bit different than usual, but you know what, I don't care. My story. :P**

**Fun Fact:_ I've recently become addicted to this old game I played a few years back called _Transformice_, I played it for hours when I got home from a speech meet last week. -_-_**

**Hugs and LOTS AND LOTS of Love! SilverPedals! **

**P.S. In case I miss it, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!**


	4. Those Blue Eyes

**Two weeks isn't so bad? Right? My computer decided to be kind to me today! Well on the bright side, there's a long chapter waiting for you! :) Hope you guys enjoy and stuff! **

**Disclaimer: IMAA belongs to its rightful owners I promise. **

His blue eyes stared directly into her brown ones. And she once again found herself getting lost in them, as she realized she'd been doing a lot recently. If she hadn't known better she would have thought that the whole sky had been trapped behind his pupils, or that they held the entire blue sea within them. If she listened hard enough, she might hear the waves crashing against the sand. They were so stunning and endless and full of knowledge that it was hard to look away.

His lips were pulled up at the sides, almost as if they were being tugged up by a string simultaneously. It was the smile that made her stomach do flips, but it was enough to make her heart feel as if it was wrapped in a nice, hot blanket. It likely beat just a bit faster than one would say was normal, but that was okay.

For a moment, she swore it was just the two of them. There was no teacher giving a lesson on quadratic formulas or whatnot. There was no students around them. It was just him and her. It was strange really, because after all the time that she has sat there, this had never happened. And after all the time they have met eyes before, this had never been the resulting action.

The sides of his lips fell while a single eyebrow lifted. "What?" he whispered, breaking her intent gaze into the sky he had trapped in his eyes. "Never heard the word, 'friend' before?"

She blinked, forgetting that something had sparked their eye contact. It was first period and Pepper had walked in expecting to have yet another day of Tony being sent to the office. But instead he pulled a curve ball on her. And it wasn't that he wasn't any trouble during class—although as of yet, he hasn't pulled anything funny—it was that he turned his attention to her and asked one simple question.

That question was: "Is it too early to call us friends?"

It was that instant that their eyes met and Pepper found herself getting lost once again in the vast sky that was his blue eyes. Apparently, she'd been staring long enough to give Tony the impression that she didn't know what he was talking about.

She shook her head, and accidently exclaimed, "No!" a little too loudly. Now this time, the attention _was_ directed on her. All eyes of different colors stared intently and curiously at her, waiting for more action. They fed on anything that disrupted class like leeches sucking on blood.

She blushed madly before trying to think of an explanation for her rudeness. But out of nervousness, none came and all she could say was, "Sorry…" in a quite mumble as she heard some of the classmate's laughter.

"Is something the matter, Ms. Potts?" Ms. Darren asked, pausing what she was writing on the board.

It was Tony who came to her rescue. He gave a loud sigh and rested his chin in his pale hand in boredom. "I told you that you shouldn't have left your calculator at your house."

For a moment, Pepper was going to protest that her calculator was sitting in her lap, but she realized at the last second that he trying to help. She nodded, and smiled sheepishly and decided to go along with it. "Yeah, I guess that wasn't smart…I was just so confident in my skills of mental math."

The class gave a good laugh and even the teach gave a light chuckle of amusement, before shaking her head. "Next time you forget your calculator, please don't disrupt the class. Thank you."

Pepper nodded and returned her gaze to her notes. A few moments passed and finally the class was moving along as it was. Pepper waited a couple of minutes before twisting her head slightly to the side towards Tony. As she expected, his blue eyes were waiting for her brown ones. She decided not to risk speaking again, and smiled and gave him a thumbs up, hoping that he understood that she meant to say, _No, it's not too early to call us friends._

And this time, he did smile that dang smile. And yes, her stomach still did flips over it.

* * *

><p>"Thanks, by the way," Pepper said during free period.<p>

Tony just shrugged, as if it the simplest thing to do. "What are friends for?"

_Friends_. Annie would have called this Pepper's greatest achievement in her life. Although, Pepper would disagree that it was the _greatest_ achievement in her life, she would most definitely agree that it was certainly an achievement to be proud off. The first day she met him, she thought he was going to a great thorn in her side. Then as she hung around him more, she was almost positive that he hated her. But now, even though he didn't exactly give off the qualities of a great friend, he turned out to be one of her closer friends. She felt happy to add his name to her small list of friends. Which now went up from three to four.

"Not stealing their friend's food?" Pepper tried. Tony still had the habit of stealing food from Pepper's lunch whenever she did eat up on the roof with the two boys. And he also still had the bad habit of ignoring her personal space. Speaking of personal space, he had decided that the best place to sit was straight to the left of her to the point where they were touching shoulders and thighs.

"But you're food is _so_ much better than my lunch," Tony complained. "Do you make it?"

Pepper shrugged. "It's not that good. It's just random things I find in my fridge or pantry at home."

"Lucky, I don't have that luxury," Tony pouted and crossed his arms, much to Pepper's confusion. "Ro—my mom never buys anything yummy and Ro—my mom told me to not eat school lunch often. You never know what can be in them."

Pepper frowned. That was the second time Tony slipped up on his words before saying his mom. She was about to question him about it, when it suddenly hit her. She felt horrible for being so slow on the pickup, but it was just then that she remembered it. Tony was an orphan. She couldn't see how she hadn't realized it when she first realized who Tony was in the first place. The car crash that had killed his father had also killed his mother. And although it was some time ago, it wasn't exactly old news either.

Wait. "Roberta?" she blurted out.

Even without his confirmation, things started clicking together like a puzzle. Roberta Rhodes, Rhodey's mom. The night when she brought over Tony's part of the project. Tony and Rhodey always walking to and from school together.

"You live with Rhodey," Pepper began.

Tony's lips were pressed in a tight, white line across his lip, his jaw set. But he nodded silently.

"Roberta Rhodes is your legal guardian, isn't she?" Pepper continued.

His blue eyes were now closed and his brought his pale fingers to pinch the bridge of his nose as he gave out a sigh. His upbeat mood had been diminished in a flash. Pepper regretting bringing anything up now, because she likely just lost her achievement of friendship because of her big, stupid mouth.

"I'm sorry…" Pepper tried to amend her mistake, but Tony held up a hand.

"Don't," he instructed as opened up his eyes. "It's just…" he paused and looked up towards the clouded sky. "…a touchy subject."

Pepper silently cursed her terrible luck of opening her mouth at the wrong time and to the wrong person. But she found that she couldn't very well leave it be after being so insensitive towards him. "No, I really am sorry! I know how it feels to lose a parent, you know? And I have to constantly worry about my dad's well-being. And I had no right to bring up such a thing. But I let my curiosity get the best of me. And you have every right to be mad and unfriend me!"

Her shoulders quickly rose and fell with her pants. Her face must be reddened from her effort to push all those words out in a single breath.

For a moment, she was staring into his eyes again and she felt almost as if she was soaring through the great blue sky with the wind breezing in her face and the birds chirping all around her. But the sky suddenly fell dark when his eyelids closed and a lilting laugh bubbled out from the back of his throat.

Pepper blinked. She hadn't realized she had said anything funny. There was nothing funny about losing a parent and having the constant fear of losing the other. She was prepared to be the one angry this time around, but a pair of cold fingers against her forehead startled her.

His eyes were once again staring into hers as they seemed to be doing a lot that day. He pushed back her head with his chilled finger tips playfully. "You make funny faces," he simply commented, before turning his attention to the sky above them.

She couldn't figure out if his words were one's of forgiveness or ignorance. But when he said nothing else, Pepper gave a sigh. Leave it to her to risk her friendship with someone the first day she earns it.

* * *

><p>To say that Annie was happy, was a serious understatement. When she heard the news, Pepper felt a few bones crack in her spine when a pair of sturdy yet scrawny arms tightened around her in glee. Happy, for once, had been too lost in his shock to even mutter a word before the bell rang for the end of lunch.<p>

"Congrats," Annie had cheered, a little too loudly as they walked their separate ways down the hallway.

Pepper had gave her the thumbs up and walked her way to her next class. The rest of the day—or week actually—had passed by rather uneventfully. With the new label of 'Tony's friend', nothing had changed. He was still as devious as ever, stealing things from her lunch, making her pencil mysteriously disappear during class, and even breaking into Pepper's phone to take random pictures of Rhodey and for some reason, their history teacher. Pepper wasn't sure what to say about that one. But the next time she turned on her phone, a picture zoomed in on their history teacher's nose had strangely become her background. When she had asked Tony about it, he simply shrugged and told her that he had nothing to do with it.

The change from being students with a mutual interest in the roof to become students with a mutual friendship, was hardly noticeable to even the pair themselves. As Tony was still his devious self, Pepper was still her weird, strange self that continued to make a list of Tony's pros and cons. So far, his cons still outweighed his pros, but thankfully it wasn't far unbalanced. Tony still only talked to her on a rare occasion, except conversations would be a little less one-sided.

And to be completely honest, Pepper couldn't say that she disliked the fact at all. It felt weird, but it felt that Tony wouldn't be Tony if he wasn't such a troublemaker. The image he had built for himself in her eyes, was a strong one indeed. Seeing him being kind and understanding seemed just wrong for Tony.

Speaking of Tony, somehow, he'd managed to find out that her birthday was coming up. It wasn't that Pepper was trying to keep it a secret, but it wasn't a day Pepper had an interest in celebrating. All it did for her was mark her age up by one year, but she never felt different. People—Annie—called her strange for disliking the holiday that was her own date of birth, but to Pepper, there was no sense in asking for presents and favors of others for a single day that changed nothing but her age.

But apparently, her birthday had become a big deal for Tony. Especially when she spoke of her true feelings for her birthday. He stared at her with eyes as big as dinner plates for well over a few minutes in his awe.

Which, all this led to where she was now. She was in a house, a house far bigger than her own, sitting on the world's comfiest sofa in the world, while eating a slice of ice-cream cake.

The house was owned by the Rhodes, and in it lived four people: Mrs. Rhodes, Mr. Rhodes, James Rhodes, and Tony Stark. Often times the house was missing one of its occupants who was currently stationed across seas for the military. The house was warm and welcoming. It was kept extremely tidy, almost impossibly so. She doubted that there wasn't a single surface with a speck of dirt on it.

Music was playing in the background while people all around her danced and chatted with others. There wasn't many people there actually, but to Pepper, it was a lot of people to have in one home. Obviously, the Rhodes minus the father was somewhere in the house, Pepper's four friends were also wandering about the house, her dad was there as well, and a couple people who said that they were friends with Rhodey.

The couch surfaced dipped down with added weight beside her and she half expected it to be Tony offering her yet another slice of ice-cream cake. He seemed to have gone overboard with the amount of cake, because every time the cake ran out, another one mysteriously appeared out of nowhere. And she was pretty sure that was mainly because Tony couldn't stop eating them himself, much to his guardian's displeasure.

But when she turned, it was his parental guardian herself sitting beside her, holding a glass of water. She gave a long sigh and gave Pepper her motherly smile Pepper had grown unaccustomed to. It reminded her strongly of a home that wasn't so damaged and empty and place that was warm and safe.

"I'm not the party person myself," she commented, gesturing to Happy who was trying to breakdance to a slow song Annie had popped in.

Pepper nodded. "Yeah, but Tony wanted me to come, so…"

"That's sweet of you," Mrs. Rhodes said as she took a sip of her water.

"Sure," Pepper nodded. She honestly couldn't think of how she ended up at a party thrown in her favor by Tony stark.

They sat there in what Pepper would consider an awkward silence. Annie tried waving her over to join whatever dance party the two were trying to start, but Pepper shook her head. It would be rude to walk off on Mrs. Rhodes after she just sat down.

"You're house is very clean," Pepper complimented suddenly. She did that often when she didn't want to sit in silence with someone else.

Mrs. Rhodes smiled in thanks. "Thanks, I do my best! I'm a mother of two, can't have them getting sick now can I? And I can't stand a messy home, either."

She said 'two sons' so easily, Pepper had to smile. Tony had found a good family to watch over him until he was of age to go out on his own. They seemed to really love and care for him. But Pepper, being the daughter of an FBI agent and having a keen observation, noticed that this time around, Mrs. Rhodes's smile had never reached her eyes.

But before Pepper could ask, the weight on the couch shifted once more. And this time, it really was Tony wielding two slices of ice-cream cake.

"Cake?" Tony asked offering Pepper one of the two plates he held in his hand that contained a slice of ice-cream cake on it. He either failed to notice that she wasn't even half done with her last piece, or was choosing to ignore this fact.

Mrs. Rhodes gave Tony a disapproving look. "Tony, you've had way too much cake."

When Pepper wasn't accepting the offered cake, Tony tried to hand it to his adoptive mother who shook her head. Tony frowned, likely not understanding why the two wouldn't want a perfectly good piece of cake, but set it down on the table as he stuffed a bite of one of them in his mouth. "So? It's a party, isn't it?"

Although his mouth had been full of cake, Mrs. Rhodes seemed to have fully comprehended his words. "Doesn't mean you can throw your health away. This is your last piece, okay?"

Pepper could see that Tony wanted nothing more than to protest, but he quickly succumbed to his mother figure's words. "Fine."

As he silently finished off what would be his last slice of cake for the night, Pepper tried patting his back to cheer him up. "Don't worry, there's always other birthday parties. Your birthday isn't until August, right? And Rhodey's is somewhere around here. So just have more then, yeah?"

Tony looked over to her, his blue eyes swirling with eagerness. "I suppose you're right!" he said, a broad smile etched onto his face, not failing to send Pepper's stomach into flips. He pumped his free hand into the air with a loud shout. "WHOO! Cake!"

Pepper was hardly able to withstand her laughter at Tony's enthusiasm all for a slice of ice-cream cake. She wondered if that was one of his favorite foods. Which reminded her, she really didn't know anything about Tony. She knew he was a known troublemaker at school who had fun especially messing with her. She knew that his birthday was in August, which was quite the while away. She learned that fact from Rhodey. She knew that he seemed to be ambidextrous, but favored to use his right hand. But that was about it. Oh, and he had the world's brightest smile and bluest eyes. That too.

Being the determined girl she was, she made it her next mission to find out more about Tony. To find out the simple things like what his favorite food was or his favorite color. As well as other small things that nobody cared to know about, like shoe size or hobbies or other interests. Or even something like what made him happy or what made him sad.

Mrs. Rhodes gave an evident sigh and finished drinking her water, almost as if she was prepared for something to happen. She gave Pepper a tap on her shoulder as she stood up, grabbing the extra cake Tony had brought with her as she headed out of the room. "Nice meeting you, Miss Potts."

Pepper shook her head. Even as the daughter of her dad, she never liked the feeling of being called by formality. She dealt with it at school, but if she could avoid it anywhere else, she'd definitely make a point to avoid the formality. "No, no! Just Pepper is fine, Mrs. Rhodes."

Mrs. Rhodes smiled. "Then Roberta is just fine for me," she said before adding, "When I'm at home, that is."

Pepper nodded. "Alright!"

As she left, her son came strolling in one of his friend's right behind him. "How's it going, birthday girl?"

"Right," Tony suddenly shot out of his seat and stood before the group and smiled excitedly. "We haven't sang yet!"

Before Rhodey could situate himself in the spot his mother had just vacated, he had excused himself and Tony to leave. "Sorry, he had a little too much sugar."

When the two left, it was basically just Rhodey's friend, Jason, and her at the couch. Happy was currently trying to convince Annie, who had become strangely bored with dancing, to do some weird dance he found on the internet. So, they weren't exactly paying any attention to them.

"What have you done to Tony?" Jason asked, staring at where Tony and Rhodey had disappeared to.

Pepper must have missed the joking tone in his voice, because she suddenly snapped, "I didn't do _anything_ to him! He just had way too much ice-cream cake."

Jason blinked at her and leaned away almost as if she had scared him. "I was just commenting on how open his seems to be. I've been here a few times, and Tony hardly ever comes out of his room. He seems to act different when you're around."

That was when Pepper found herself blushing madly. She had that effect on Tony? She hadn't even noticed. Which just reminded her of her goal to learn more about her new blue-eyed friend. "Sorry," she apologized with a sheepish smile, "I thought you were accusing me of something…"

"Not at all," Jason replied. "I don't know much about Tony, really. But I do notice that opposed to normal, he seems very…what's the word? Happy, maybe?"

"Yeah?" Happy asked, his voice strained as he was trying to hold himself up on his hands.

"Not you," Jason called, but laughed. He waved to Pepper suddenly. "Well, happy birthday! I'm going to go see what Happy is up to."

With that Pepper was once again left alone to sit on the sofa, eating her ice-cream cake, listening to music. But this time, she was left to ponder what Jason's words meant.

* * *

><p>It was later on that night, after she had gone home that she remembered that it was a Friday. Honestly, she had forgotten and had readied herself for bed at the early time of 7 o'clock. Which, normally she stayed up an hour later reading or winding down for the night before heading to bed around eight. That is, when it was the weekday. But on weekends she used the advantage of not having to wake up so early to stay up later doing other things.<p>

So she had busied herself with watching reruns on the TV while doodling on the back of some paper that was on the coffee table. It wasn't until the clock struck around 10 that she had heard the front door open. Her eyes were heavy and her head had been bobbing as she fought sleep when she heard the telltale click of the door closing. Now alert, she tossed the paper she had been doodling on and headed toward the front door.

"Dad," she smiled in relief. She had forgotten that he had to work late and she wasn't expecting any guests, so she had done the first thing that came to mind.

Her dad raised his eyebrow at her. "What are you planning to do with the home phone?"

Instead of being embarrassed though, Pepper ended up laughing. In her slight panic that a robber was breaking in, Pepper had grabbed the closest thing to her on her walk to the door and sadly, it was the wireless home phone her dad had finally installed just a few days ago. No more did they have to rely solely on poorly charged cellphones.

"I have no idea," Pepper commented, setting the phone down. Really, the worst she can do with the phone was call 911 or throw it at the intruders head.

Her dad kicked his shoes off aimlessly into the closet and dropped his coat over the closet handle. He gave her a tired, yet comforting smile as he gave her a big hug. He smelled of the work place, which wasn't always a pleasant smell. He worked with plenty of smokers and it seemed like the office used way to much cleaner to clean up coffee spills. Which, wasn't the best of combinations for a scent to carry home.

"Happy birthday, my girl," he said, pulling away.

"Thanks, dad," Pepper replied.

He made a mock crying sound that Pepper laughed at as he pretended to whine. "You're just getting so big! I can't believe my little girl isn't so little anymore!"

"I'll always be your little girl dad," Pepper assured him.

It felt like compared to most teens, Pepper got along with her dad much more than most. And maybe that had something to do with not seeing him very often. He worked late most days and with school, Pepper was generally asleep by the time he would get home and often times, Pepper was at school when her dad didn't have to go work before getting called in later on that day. So maybe they didn't fight much was because of the lack of constant contact between the two. Making getting tired of each other harder than usual.

"Which reminds me," her dad said, leading the way to the living room where Pepper had left the television on. "How'd your party go? Any cute boys there?"

"Dad!" Pepper was quick to protest his words. Even though they got along, her dad still liked to tease her a lot on how she never seemed to like any boys. She couldn't tell if he was excited for her to get a boyfriend or was dreading the day she came home telling him she had a boyfriend.

"There wasn't any cute boys there," Pepper informed her dad.

"You don't think that Stark boy is cute?" her dad questioned, taking a seat on the sofa.

Pepper blushed, but shook her head vigorously in straight out denial. "I don't like Tony! That is final, dad!"

Pepper probably would have handled that nicer than she had, but her dad was quite the persistent man. This wasn't just the first time he had asked about Pepper's feeling and thoughts about Tony. And not just for his looks, either. She didn't know why he seemed so convinced that she liked Tony. If her dad saw how Tony was like at school, he would stop teasing her about him immediately. But then again the other day when Tony had…No, that was only a one time deal.

"Okay, okay," Her dad relented with a tired sigh followed by a long yawn. "Man, work today was rough."

She used her chilled hands to pull her dad back on his feet and began to drag him towards his room. He never was good at getting himself to bed in the proper place and sometimes he needed the extra help so he didn't end up staying up all night watching the television. "Then let's both get some rest, I'm tired to."

And after dropping her dad off in his room, she dragged her own tired self to her own comfortable bed, thinking how she wished her bed had been as comfy as the couch at Rhodey's house.

* * *

><p>The following Monday at school, Tony had returned back to his normal self. No longer was he super hyped up on ice-cream cake and no longer did he seem to care that her birthday had just passed. It was just another day at Tomorrow Academy. As always, Tony started his little distraction in first hour and got sent to the office for misconduct and misuse of school property, also known as his math book. As well as strong backtalk. It was obvious to say that the teacher was sick of Tony's disruptions in class.<p>

He returned by the end of the hour and thankfully stayed silent for the last five minutes of class. By the second period, things were still going normal. Tony was ignoring personal boundaries once more as he tried to snag one of Pepper's hairpins, much to her displeasure. But this time, she decided to be bold as well and swiped at his phone that he carelessly laid on his leg.

But he made no move to get it back from her. Not even a playful grab at it. Instead he just stared at her with his eyebrows raised. Almost as if he was daring her to go on with her daring act of nabbing his phone. She really didn't know what she was supposed to do with his phone, because she knew that he obviously had a code on it and she wasn't genius enough to break into it. So getting back at him for scaring her with surprise pictures of their history teacher's nose, was out of the question.

He twisted her hairpin that he had somehow managed to steal from right off her head in his hand. "What are you going to do now?"

Pepper held his phone if front of her, wondering the same thing. Even when it was in arm's length for him, he still left her with possession of his phone. But she figured it was just him being cocky and arrogant, thinking that there was no way she could possible gain anything of use by holding his phone captive.

"What's the passcode?" Pepper wondered, hoping that she was lucky and he'd give it to her. _Hoping_.

Tony's face took on a look of amusement. "Nope! Not a chance!" he sang out, quickly snatching his phone back with easy, much to Pepper's disappointment. She had plans for that phone.

"Hey!" she protested, stretching out to grab the phone that was currently back in its owner's possession.

"You'll never get it," Tony assured her making sure she was unable to reach the phone.

Now Tony was much taller than Pepper, so it wasn't much of a struggle for the blue-eyed boy to keep the phone out of reach by simply straightening his arm above his head. But since they were sitting, Pepper knew she could easily just stand up and snatch the device back. So, after playing along and pretending to try to reach it with no purchase, she pushed herself up with the aid of Tony's bent knee and reached up just high enough to get her hand around the device.

His grip was loose, surly out of confidence and arrogance, so the phone slipped back into Pepper's grasp with ease. She laughed and smiled brightly in pride as she scooted away from Tony. "You were saying?"

She turned the screen on and tried to guess the password a few times, but apparently it had nothing to do with Rhodey or ditching class. Not even ice-cream cake.

"You'll never guess," Tony promised.

"It's 'Stark08' isn't it?" Pepper guessed. It was so simple, maybe he was guessing that people would second guess themselves with it. His eyes widened and his cheeks looked warm to the touch as his pouted. Again, the word adorable still didn't quite fit Tony. "Ha! I knew it!"

"No, but you're not far off," Tony relented after a long pause with a sigh. "Add a zero."

And sure enough, after entering in the code, she had full access to his phone. His phone was beyond amazing. It looked like it was beyond their time period, almost as if it came from the future. She found herself so transfixed on the technology of it all, she lost track of her main goal to do something in revenge for the teacher's nose prank. She wanted nothing more than to see what games and apps Tony had on here. She wanted to ask him if he had made it, because she never saw a phone like this anywhere else.

But an alarming beeping noise began emitting from the small speakers of the phone, startling Pepper. "What?"

And just as alarming as the sudden beeping, Tony had snatched the phone back from her and was on his feet in a mere second in seemed. And just like that she had been left in his dust without so much as a goodbye as she wondered if she had missed something.

Because by the end of the day, Tony was yet to return back to class.

**I'll ask again, still good? What did you think? Give my your honest opinion. I had fun writing this chapter even though it had to be rewritten at least once. **

**Fun Fact: (As requested) I have two siblings. Both are brothers and I'm the middle child.**

**Hugs and Love, SilverPedals!**


	5. Curiosity and the Cat

**Welp...that took three rewrites and I still made it within 2 weeks! That seems like my unofficial schedule for this story. :) Oh well, it works right? Thank you all for all the support and love for this story. I really do enjoy writing this one!**

**Disclaimer: IMAA doesn't belong to me. It belongs to it's rightful owners.**

After Tony ran off on her that Monday, Pepper had begun to realize that Tony's absences were becoming longer and more frequent. She had even begun to wonder how the school wasn't taking more action and asking more questions about where the teen spent his time while not in school. Or how his adoptive mother, who is a very good lawyer, wasn't putting her foot down on the situation.

When she came up and asked him as a friend, he waved off her concern for him. That was also when he decided to break the news to her that this year was his first year going to school since the first grade and how he'd been homeschooled for most of his life. "I don't need school," he arrogantly added for good measure. "I know everything I'll need to know for the rest of my life. I don't need one more year of schooling."

Pepper didn't want to believe that he was literally blowing off school as if it was just a boring hobby of his, so she went to the next person who'd be able to give some sort of answer to her. Rhodey.

But basically, she just got a less arrogant response from him. "Tony just hates school in general, I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to skip the rest of the year. This year and next year." Rhodey told her with a sigh of his own. "Too bad mom won't accept that."

She just wished that she could understand Tony more and then maybe she could convince him in some way that school was good for him, even if he knew everything they taught him.

That was another thing Pepper realized about Tony. Becoming friends with him really didn't change anything. Unlike before, they talked more and they hung out more. Pepper felt more comfortably sitting next to him during class instead of feeling incredibly awkward since she knew he spent half the hour staring at her for some ungodly reason. Pepper felt freer to mess with him back when he stole her food or tried to annoy her. And they definitely didn't mind physical contact because they'd often playful push or hit the other.

But just as before, Tony seemed reluctant to open up to her. He didn't say anything about his family, blood or adoptive. He never spoke of his personal interests or his hobbies outside of school. He was basically a closed book. Pepper doesn't even remember if she knows what his favorite color was or what movies he liked or the little things like that.

Which brought her to the present day, where Tony was staring at her as if she had a third eye or something. "What?"

Pepper crossed her arms in a pout. "I just wanted to know what your favorite color was, jeez."

Tony made the adorable—wrong word—face again, where he blinked a few times and lightly puffed out his cheeks in his confusion. "Red and gold," he finally replied, sounding almost unsure of himself.

Pepper felt her cheeks dragging her lips upwards and into a smile. "I just _love_ red! Red is my favorite color!"

Although it was something as tiny as his favorite color, Pepper swore she felt as if he just told her one of his deepest secrets. Which made her wonder what she would feel like when he finally did trust her enough to spill a secret so large.

He was still giving her a strange look when he pulled his knee to his chest. "Cool," he casually said.

"Ooh, what's your favorite," Pepper paused, trying to decide what she wanted to ask him next. She tapped a finger to her chin lightly. "Food?"

When he responded, Pepper wondered how she couldn't have guessed. "Ice-cream cake!" he happily replied, with a dreamy look on his face, almost as if he was reminiscing about the taste of the frozen dessert. Seriously, that boy was addicted to the food.

So that's how they spent the rest of second period—or well, most of it. When there was about ten minutes left of second period, Tony stood up when Pepper was pondering about what else she wanted to learn about him.

"Where are you going?" she asked, watching as he shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Away from here," he informed her, taking steady steps towards the door that led downstairs.

"But," Pepper stopped herself there, not sure what she would have said. It was so abrupt and sudden, she had to wonder if she had missed anything in their conversation. Did she annoy him that much that he wanted to leave her? She looked down, she must have talked too much. But then she looked up and blurted the first thing that came to mind. "Do you want me to come with?"

And those words were the exact words that caused Tony to spin around and the sky in his eyes grew bigger. And Pepper couldn't help but relate him to a deer in headlights. He opened his and his head tilted up as if he was about to say yes, but instead he began to shake his head. He brought up a pale hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Please don't," he spoke just loud enough for her to hear before swiftly walking step by step off the roof, leaving Pepper behind up in the cold that was the roof.

It was that moment that she probably should have notice it. But of course, it was left unnoticed, just like the way Pepper wrapped her arms around herself noticing how cold she was without Tony's presence.

* * *

><p>Pepper felt as if she could just fall over in her exhaustion. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't prevent the bobbing of her head in class or the persistent yawns that escaped her lips or even the drooping of her heavy eyelids. By the end of first period, she knew that the day was going to be a long one indeed. A lonely one too by the looks of it.<p>

Tony was absent yet again, which wasn't exactly news to anyone. Happy and the rest of the Tomorrow Academy basketball team were out of school for some tournaments as well as plenty of other students who decided to support the school team. But it was the absence of Rhodey that made Pepper wonder if something was going on. With both Rhodey and Tony absent, Pepper had to wonder if it was family related. Because it made sense if the two had to be gone for a funeral or some other important family event. But Pepper didn't question it.

"Did you get any sleep last night?" Annie wondered aloud at lunch when Pepper almost fell asleep face first in her food.

Pepper yawned once again and sighed. "Only an hour's worth," Pepper replied.

Last night had been by far, one of Pepper's worst nights ever. She could hardly get a wink of sleep the entire night and it wasn't even because the heater in their house had conveniently broke on them yesterday. No, as far as Pepper knew, there was no true reason for her sleepless night last night. Though, he mind had been somewhere else the entire night, probably where it shouldn't have been, and maybe that was why. But either way, she couldn't sleep.

"Wow, sounds like you had a rough night," Annie commented, even though she really knew nothing of how Pepper's night went.

"Yeah," Pepper tiredly agreed.

"You know what I've noticed," Annie suddenly spoke after a bit of silence. Pepper just glanced her way, too tired to even speak. "It's awfully quiet whenever Happy's gone."

Pepper had to agree on that one. Happy, although not the brightest student in Tomorrow Academy, was like the life of the school. He talked to anyone and everyone almost as if they were all his closest friends. He spoke to them as if he knew everything about them and as if they weren't glaring at him the entire conversation. Happy, Pepper finally realized, was a people person. He was extremely social and unexpectedly kind.

"And Tony," Pepper found herself adding.

Annie gave Pepper an odd look before nodding slowly. "Yeah, I guess you are right."

Tony wasn't like Happy, not by any means. But where Happy seemed to entertain and interact with everyone during lunch period or after school activities, Tony did the same during class periods. Although Tony's approached wasn't exactly user friendly with the teachers or other students who actually liked to learn new things, Tony was the life within the class room. But with him gone, it was just another boring day of class with nothing interesting to speak of to others.

"Hey, I was planning on going shopping later after school. Do you want to come with?" Annie questioned excitedly.

Pepper thought for a moment, before deciding. She gave a shake of her head and gave her friend an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I want to try to get some rest after school."

Well, that was what she had planned for herself to do after school, but instead she found herself standing in front of Rhodey's house, which also happened to be Tony's house. She didn't know why she had brought it upon herself to drag her tired self here, but somehow, she didn't mind. After the few months she had known Tony, she'd only been to his house once, and that was on her birthday, and she spent that whole day sitting on their couch basically.

She hasn't knocked yet, because she was still pondering if it was good idea to just show up unannounced. Even if she didn't mind visiting, they might.

Turns out, she didn't need to knock. She was still standing there, debating amongst herself about whether or not she should knock already, when the door swung open to reveal an overwrought looking Roberta. She clutched an overnight bag in the bend of her left elbow and a cup of coffee and keys in the other. Her hair looked as if she ran her fingers through her hair one too many times. "Pepper?"

Pepper stepped clear out of the way. "Sorry, I wanted to see if Tony was home." She glanced at Roberta as she struggled to lock the door behind her. "Would you like some help?"

Roberta gave a big sigh in relief as if Pepper just offered to carry all of her problems for her. "Would you, please?"

Pepper gladly offered to hold the overnight bag for Roberta and followed the lawyer down the steps to her car. She patiently waited for Roberta to situate her things in the car before handing the overnight bag back to the woman. Roberta was quick to open the trunk and toss the overnight bag in before quickly making her way to the driver seat.

She looked over at Pepper as if she had forgotten the redhead was even there. "I'm sorry, did you ask me something?"

Pepper shook her head. "No, I just wanted to see if Tony was home."

Roberta frowned, but quickly turned her head away as she started the car. "No, he's not here. He's at," she paused and shook her head with a stressed sigh. "I don't know. But I gotta go, sorry."

She closed the door and gave a quick wave before slowly pulling out of the driveway, leaving Pepper wondering what just happened.

* * *

><p>Pepper had a brilliant date with her bed last night, she went to bed extra early and cozied up under layers and layers of blankets; never to wake up until morning when she had to go to school. Though when she arrived at school, Rhodey looked no better than what she imagined she looked like the previous day. No wonder the boy was gone yesterday.<p>

"Are you feeling alright?" she had asked him as he was pulling his things out of his locker for first period.

He gave a long and deliberate sigh. "Yeah, just tired. I had a rough day yesterday."

Pepper wasn't the world's best person reader, but she could easily tell that just like Roberta, Rhodey seemed stressed, almost like he was being stretched to his limit. Like mother like son, she guessed. "Yeah, I stopped by your house yesterday," she said, "I ran into your mom. She was in a rush to go somewhere."

Rhodey was silent for a moment, before running a hand over his forehead. She noticed that he often did that when he was stressed beyond his limits. "Yeah, we had family in the hospital."

Pepper frowned. "I'm sorry, is it bad?"

It had to be if it had the whole family gone. Which made her wonder if Tony had skipped for his own reasons or if he was truly gone for family reasons like Rhodey. Really, though, she had no right to know. But being the daughter of an FBI agent, she was naturally curious. Too curious actually.

Rhodey looked at her for a moment, with his mouth ajar as if he was about to say something, but then shook his head. "Look, I know you mean well, but I'm sorry, I don't want to talk about it."

As he walked away with his books clutched to his chest, Pepper wondered if maybe she was becoming too involved in something. Because for even Rhodey to turn his back on her like that, and give her the cold shoulder, it must have been close to the heart. Now she truly realized how truly distant she really was from both Tony _and_ Rhodey. She thought it was just Tony she didn't know, but in all reality, it was both of them that she didn't know. In fact, she knew less about Rhodey than she knew about Tony. At least she knew that Tony's favorite colors were red and gold and his favorite food was ice-cream cake. Or than he loved action movies, but also enjoyed comedy movies as well. Or that he couldn't stand sitting in silence, which explained a lot in class during work time. But with Rhodey, there was nothing. She knew he was kind and understanding, but everyone knew that. Everyone knew that Rhodey was trusting and big-hearted, but she didn't know anything a friend should know. Nothing personal that she as a friend knew that no one else knew. And here she was, thinking that she was a close friend to them. She thought she knew them, but really she knew nothing.

She pondered her new revelations until the late bell rang. Then she was left rushing to make it to class before the teacher got upset with her. And when she arrived to first period, she instantly noticed that Tony was absent again. She silently took her seat as several pairs of eyes followed her.

It was going to be a long Wednesday.

* * *

><p>"You're alive!" Pepper cheered happily. She didn't even think about it, before she rushed to wrap her arms around her blue-eyed friend. She just barely noticed how she was able to rest her head perfectly to where his heart would be. But she definitely noticed that this was the first time she truly hugged the teen.<p>

He groaned as if in pain before giving a surprised laugh. "It's good to be alive…I guess?"

Pepper smiled, still hugging him. "Yeah."

They stood there for a few moments, before Tony got too awkward with the hug and lightly pushed her away. Pepper clasped her hands together sheepishly as her face lit up. She couldn't help herself. The poor boy was gone for almost a week and a half! Way longer that what was commonly accepted as normal. It was Tuesday and Tony had been absent since last Monday. It wasn't Pepper's fault that she figured he must be dead if he was going to be gone that long. Especially after he never returned any of her phone calls or texts.

"Where were you?" she found herself asking, or more of demanding. He had her worried!

He smiled that dang smile. "So you really do care about me?"

She crossed her arms across her chest stubbornly. "What kind of question is that? Of course I care about you! You're my friend!"

His smile dropped and she swore he almost looked like a kicked puppy. But he quickly recovered and threw her a sheepish smile this time. "Yeah, sorry about that. I didn't know how serious our friendship was."

Pepper wanted to say something sarcastic like:_ Duh, you doofus. I take friendship seriously no matter what!_ But instead she returned the smile and uncrossed her arms in forgiveness. "That's fine, I guess we just really don't know each other that well."

Tony blinked as if he just realized this fact like Pepper had only realized this the previous week or so. "Right, I guess we don't."

"So don't be assuming that I don't care," Pepper stated, just to make it clear between them. "Next time, tell me if something is wrong."

Tony nodded quickly. "Right, yeah. I'll do that."

"Well, I guess this means Pepper forgave you, huh?" Rhodey said as he walked up to the two teens.

Pepper had found Rhodey that morning at his locker before she could spot Tony, who had wondered off somewhere else. So Rhodey got to hear the mouthful Pepper had prepared for Tony. She made her anger obvious to Rhodey, because if Tony was absent yet again, she made sure that Rhodey would deliver her message to the blue-eyed trouble maker. But turns out he was here, and luckily for him, she had already released her anger, which was mostly concern, on someone else.

"Thankfully," Tony commented with a loud sigh of relief.

"Hey, you're not off the hook yet," Pepper reminded him. "I still don't know why you were gone all that time. Where'd you go?"

"Um…" Tony quickly glanced at Rhodey for help.

But Pepper shook her head. "Nope, he's not helping you. _You_ left me alone up on that roof in the cold last week, and I want to know why."

Tony swallowed. Funny thing was, Pepper could see that he was genuinely scared of her. Good, now maybe he'll know better than to mess with her. He slumped his shoulders with a sigh. "I have no reason," he replied in defeat.

Pepper gave a sigh of her own, knowing that whether or not he was speaking the honest truth, she would never get the answer she wanted.

"But," Tony held up a finger, "I'll make it up to, I promise."

She lifted a single eyebrow. "How?"

He threw her a smile and turn his back towards her, setting off Pepper's curiosity. She stepped a little bit closer to figure out what he was doing. It took her longer than it probably should have, but when she finally did, she gave a nervous laugh. "No, I couldn't possibly…"

He jerked his head in a welcoming manner while he wriggled his fingers behind his back. "C'mon, it'll be fun."

"Tony," Rhodey spoke up. "Maybe this isn't a good—"

"Don't suck the fun out of everything, Rhodey," Tony interrupted the other boy. He looked back to Pepper with his dang smile and bent his knees a little. "Hop on already, we've got places to travel!"

Pepper found herself giggling at his antics. Really, once she got to hang around him enough, she didn't need to know all the personal stuff to know that she liked being near him. Or to know that he was fun to be around in general when he wasn't wreaking havoc in the classroom. "If you insist," she stepped closer, so she was standing directly behind him. "Um…" she was unsure how to go about it, though.

"Here," Tony twisted around just enough to lead her arms to his shoulders, "Now just lean forward."

She bit her lip nervously as he leaned forward, her weight carefully falling onto Tony's back. He adjusted her weight higher on his back before pushing himself into a standing position. He wrapped his arms around her knees to secure her in place before taking a few steps.

"Where to, Pep?" he asked, turning in place.

"Um...what?" She understood what he was asking perfectly fine. That wasn't the problem. Actually there really was no problem. It was the name that caught her off-guard.

"Where to?" he repeated as if it was obvious. Before he must have realized what she meant. "Oh, that? I don't know…I just thought it'd be pretty."

"To give me a pet name?" she wondered. She wasn't sure if she was happy that he felt comfortable enough to say that or mad that he was already giving her a nickname when really they knew nothing on the personal level about each other.

"What, too soon?" he questioned worriedly.

She rested her chin on her hand that was settled on his shoulder as she thought. "Nah, you're fine."

Actually, she found it sweet that he came up with that name. It wasn't something she thought she'd ever be called and that she'd actually like being called it. Coming from him, it really did sound pretty.

Rhodey made a gagging noise as he scrunched his face up at them. "Ew, go be lovebirds somewhere else!"

Pepper was too befuddled and embarrassed to respond, the tips of her ears had even turned red. But it was Tony who nearly dropped her in his surprise. But fortunately, the boy seemed to have an iron grip on her knees and righted himself before she could drop. "We're _not_ lovebirds!" he stubbornly protested while Pepper just vigorously shook her head.

Rhodey just chuckled and pointed toward class. "Whatever you say, T. I'll be in class if you need any advice."

"We're not lovebirds!" Tony shouted at him once more, before letting out a loud breath. He grumbled to himself before looking up to Pepper. "So, where to?"

* * *

><p>Pepper decided that she didn't need to be on a personal level to be friends with the two boys. She didn't need to know their deepest and darkest secrets or know everything thing they did or everywhere they went. She didn't care. And she probably wouldn't have ever came up with this decision if it weren't for a certain conversation she found herself having with Rhodey's mother.<p>

It was the Saturday after Tony's return to the living, when Pepper wanted to stop by and visit for a while. She had promised her dad that they'd hang out again later, so Pepper couldn't stay long. But she thought that since she was in the area, she'd see what the boys were up to. But she had the worse luck when visiting them.

"You just missed them," Roberta apologized. "I sent them to get groceries for me. It's my first full day off in weeks and the boys requested some homemade food, but I didn't have the ingredients. You can come on in if you'd like and wait for them."

Albeit a little reluctant, Pepper didn't want to seem rude and turn down the generous offer, so she kindly accepted. And just like before, Pepper noticed how tidy and spotless the house was. Not a single dust out of place or marks on the carpet.

Sitting in the living room where she last sat at her own birthday party, they talked while they waited for the two boys to return with groceries. Pepper wasn't entirely sure how the topic was brought up, but she found herself listening to Roberta as she explained a few things to her that Pepper hadn't realized about both of the two boys.

"Rhodey literally was Tony's first and only friend," Roberta commented with a warm and tender voice. "I was good friends with his father before I became his lawyer. And he'd tell me that he was concerned that Tony would never have a friend when he most needed one."

Pepper respectively listened as Roberta explained that she introduced her own son to Tony and the two became immediate friends since the age of seven. They grew up together as best friends even though one was publically schooled while the other was homeschooled.

"Tony's always been," Roberta paused trying to find the correct words, "A little closed off, if you know what I mean. He found one friend and he's always believed that to be all he needed."

Pepper understood what Roberta was trying to tell her. It was a rare—a very rare—occasion for Tony to make a new friend. She hadn't realized that he was literally speaking the truth when he told her that Rhodey and she were his only friends.

"And Rhodey's always been highly protective of Tony and generally watches who he befriends," Roberta continued. "Tony's been hurt many times and it's hurt Rhodey to see it happen."

Pepper nodded, still silent as she absorbed this information. She no longer cared about why the conversation was brought up or why it mattered in the first place. And strangely, Pepper felt somewhat honored that she was able to befriend both of them. It was clear that it was hard to get Tony to like a person enough to befriend them in the first place, but learning that there was Rhodey to get past as well, made it seem that much more of an achievement.

A thought suddenly occurred to Pepper. "What about Whitney?"

A frown suddenly pulled at the lawyer's lips as she sighed. "She was the daughter of one of Howard's co-workers. Before Rhodey, they sometimes hung out and played, but I don't know what happened. They had some big falling out and they just stopped hanging out. I was shocked to hear that the two were dating a while back, but just like before it didn't last too long."

A thoughtful look entered the mother of two's face. But she smiled as she continued, "But I think it'll going to work out with you. Tony seems," she paused, again unsure about her words, "better around you. More happy and free."

It was that comment that she realized that she didn't need to know every single thing about them to be friends. She just needed to know that they trusted her enough to allow her into their close circle. Plus, it was nice to know that she was a positive impact on them rather than a negative one as she had worried she was becoming.

The front door had opened at that point, signaling that the two had come home from their adventure to the grocery store. Which was Pepper's signal to leave. She stood up and politely said her goodbyes to Roberta before rushing to the door.

"Pepper?" both boys voiced their surprise as she passed by them.

She waved and smiled before heading straight out the door.

"Did you come to see us?" Rhodey called after her.

She turned back around before she got to the stairs and shook her head. "Nah, I'm good. Just had a heart to heart with your mom!"

As she turned back around, she could see Rhodey give a confused look at her while Tony was just laughing at Rhodey's confused face. Boys will be boys, she supposed as she ran through the chilly air all the way home. There was no avoiding them. Especially when one of them ran after her.

"Wait!" a wheezy shout sounded behind her.

She had been halfway home, when she finally heard the voice that must have been shouting at her since they left their block. When she turned around Tony had almost fell over in his exhaustion. He was panting heavily towards the ground as he supported himself on his knees. She had been in such a rush to get home and out of the cold, she must not have noticed that he'd been running after her.

She sped towards him, concerned that he was breathing so hard. "I'm sorry, I didn't notice you. Are you alright?"

He looked up at her from his slouched form and held up a finger. "One…sec…" he was holding at his lungs as he caught his breath before smiling up at her.

She wondered if she should maybe lead him to a nearby bench or if she should offer her shoulder from him, but after a moment he seemed fine. He straightened himself up and gave a laugh. "You forgot this," he held up the hand that he'd been using against his chest and in it was her bag she always carried around aside from her backpack. "I wanted to give it to you before you got too far."

"Oh," she didn't know what else to say as she received the bag she had left behind. "Thank you!"

He gave a nod and smiled that dang smile. "Yep, no problem." He gave one last nod before giving her a thumbs up and turning back around to head back home.

In that moment, she probably should have really noticed it, but just like before, it was left unnoticed.

**So you guys liking the friendship Pepperony and hints at more? Or nah? I hope you guys are still liking it, because I sure enjoy writing it still! **

**Fun Fact: _Recently, I've come to really love elephants! It's probably because I'm reading _Water For Elephants _right now. I watched the movie awhile back though._**

**Just so it's out there for you guys, I'm also working on the next chapter for a few things. In Loving Memory for sure! But still don't know exactly when that'll be finished. **

**Hugs and Love, SilverPedals! :D**

**P.S. Anyone play Town of Salem? I've become absolutely ADDICTED to it! X3**

**P.S.S. ****And just a HUGE thanks to all the reviews from the last chapter! I wasn't expecting that kind of reaction to a single paragraph. It really made my day reading those reviews! I just wanted to let you guys know that your reviews don't go unappreciated! I love them to bits they are so encouraging! I hope I'm not sounding selfish or horrible in anyway by saying that...**


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